Travel Tips From Sportswriters: How to Play the Game

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Sportswriters, like those in the scrum covering NBA star Stephen Curry at the 2016 All-Star Game in Toronto in February, are some of the savviest travelers around. Photo: NBAE/Getty Images

Scott McCartney

Scott McCartney

The Wall Street Journal

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April 20, 2016 12:49 p.m. ET

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Uncertain where his next business trip would take him but determined to get low hotel rates, Mike Monroe booked rooms in five different cities more than a month in advance. Then he canceled all the reservations he didn't need.

Such are the lengths sportswriters go at playoff time to chase teams around the country on tight budgets.

In the sport of travel, pro basketball and hockey writers compete at an Olympic level. They study airline and hotel loyalty programs as closely as offensive sets and trade rumors. They track cheap fares and upgrades, chart hotel price drops, share late-night and airport food strategies and time airport security lines in different cities. Their travel gameplans can be instructional for all travelers.

"Sportswriters are among the most savvy travelers out there," says Mr. Monroe, a veteran of 32 NBA seasons who now covers the San Antonio Spurs for the online Rivard Report ^[6].

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Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press interviews Detroit Red Wings rookie Dylan Larkin. Ms. St. James has covered the hockey team for 10 years and has had so many early-morning flights after games she says she knows the location of airport coffee shops blindfolded. Photo: Helene St. James

The Spurs ended up facing the Memphis Grizzlies this week in the first round of the NBA playoffs, a fate not locked in until the regular season's last day. Mr. Monroe knew that once the opponent and playoff dates were set, fans would grab rooms and prices would soar. So he booked one-night reservations in five cities for all possible playoff dates—that way he wouldn't have to modify a reservation and have the hotel reprice at higher rates.

Players fly in luxury on a team charter after the game, typically getting private security screening and whatever fancy food they want. ( Delta Air Lines ^[7] DAL 0.18 % ^[8] has a special fleet fitted for team travel ^[9].) But print reporters hardly ever fly on team planes.

Football writers fly no more than once a week for away games. Baseball writers spend the most time on the road, including weeks away from home for spring training, but have time to unpack in each city, with series lasting two to four days. But basketball and hockey teams travel as they play—at a hectic pace, often with games on consecutive days in different cities.

Sports road warriors say they love the travel and feel privileged to have fun jobs. But hitting six cities in 10 days can be taxing. Darnell Mayberry, a basketball beat writer ^[10] for nine years with the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, recalls nights working until 1 a.m. filing stories and blog posts, followed by a 5:30 a.m. flight to get to the next city.

Smarter Gameplans on the Road

Sportswriters chasing teams city to city, game to game are extreme road warriors who know the importance of developing routines and remembering tried-and-true fundamental strategies. Here are some of their favorite travel tips:

Avoid checking bags even on 10-day road trips. Learn to layer so you can pack light.
TSA PreCheck is more important than ever to avoid missing flights. Sign up.
Airline and hotel elite status is the absolute best convenience. Do anything to get it.
Window seats for sleeping; aisle for legroom and easier bathroom access.
Be the nice person pleading for help when things go wrong rather than the angry screamer demanding the impossible. You always get better treatment.
Keep checking hotel rates even after you make reservations far in advance. They can drop, and you can rebook to save money.
Get to your next city as soon as you can—rede ye or early morning flights—to avoid missing games from flight delays or cancellations.

Mr. Mayberry picked Southwest Airlines ^[11] LUV 0.34 % ^[12] as his airline and Marriott as his preferred hotel chain and achieved top-tier benefits with both, like priority seating and early check-in. "Every way you could work it I tried to work it," he says. But NBA travel was such a grind that this season he opted for a desk job.

Helene St. James has covered the Detroit Red Wings for the Detroit Free Press for the past 10 years ^[13]. When they were in the NHL's Western Conference, she traveled longer distances to California and western Canada and typically had platinum status on Delta. When the team moved to the Eastern Conference, trips were shorter—New York, Boston, Montreal—and she fell to gold status, though if the team advances in the playoffs she can build up the mileage account.

"My status depends on their status in the playoffs," she jokes.

She never gets on a plane without a bottle of water, and never checks a bag. TSA's PreCheck and airline Wi-Fi have made her job easier, and she invested in a laptop with much longer battery life than the one the newspaper issued to her, since only about half the planes she finds herself on these days have power outlets.

"There isn't much time to be lonely," she says.

Ms. St. James says her job is great. But like many business travelers, she can't do it well unless she handles the travel well. "A lot of it is mental toughness," she says.

And like anyone who travels, she found some airplane episodes can be nerve-racking. One early morning flying from Vancouver, British Columbia to Seattle, she found herself on a regional jet with only 10 passengers. The crew relocated passengers to the back of the plane to adjust the aircraft's center of gravity. Then the pilot came back and told the flight attendant to move the drink cart to the rear as well.

"It felt like my safety depended on cans of Coca-Cola ^[14] KO -4.07 % ^[15] being distributed correctly," she says.

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Jeff Wilson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram beat writer covering the Texas Rangers, snaps a picture at spring training in Arizona. Like many sportswriters chasing teams, he books his own flights, often opting for whatever is cheapest, then using his elite frequent-flier status to get on more convenient flights standby. Photo: Jared Christopher/Star-Telegram

Jeff Wilson, who covers the Texas Rangers for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, will take extra flights on American Airlines ^[16] AAL 0.35 % ^[17] to build status. He might fly from Seattle to Dallas-Fort Worth by connecting in Los Angeles instead of taking a nonstop flight, or make mileage runs ^[18] at the end of the year—cheap flights just to reach the threshold to keep his platinum status.

To save his newspaper money, Mr. Wilson books the cheapest flight he can find, then uses his status to switch to more convenient flights through the standby list. With platinum status on American, he says he almost always gets on the flight that would have been more expensive to book originally. And instead of staying at the fancy hotels used by the team, he finds Marriotts for under $200 a night.

"We're in the same cities, but we don� �t travel the same way," he says of the Rangers.

The perks help compensate for all the time away from home. He and his wife have never paid for a vacation—even their honeymoon. They always use miles and points for airline tickets and hotel rooms.

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Adam Vingan, who covers the Nashville Predators for the Tennessean, watches the team practice at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Photo: Samuel M. Simpkins/The Tennessean

Adam Vingan just finished his rookie regular season covering the Nashville Predators hockey team for the Tennessean.

He values convenience over status. If there's a direct JetBlue ^[19] JBLU -0.38 % ^[20] flight, he'll take that over two stops on Southwest, even though he's building status on Southwest. He's realized he can book more expensive hotels in Canada because the U.S. dollar's exchange rate is strong.

And he's learned that sometimes you just have to punt. A snowstorm in Chicago kept him from getting from Columbus, Ohio, to Minneapolis for back-to-back games last fall, so he just went to the next stop on the road trip, New York. The paper ran a wire service account of the Minnesota Wild game.

To fans, the team reporters can be celebrities. In 2011 Mr. Monroe, then with the San Antonio Express-News, flew to Argentina to cover guard Manu Ginóbili and three other Spurs players in an international tournament.

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Mike Monroe, who's covering his 32nd NBA season, in the press room at an international basketball tournament in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 2011. When Mr. Monroe started out, NBA teams flew on the same commercial airline flights as sportswriters. 'The players saw you as a real live person, as opposed to somebody who just sticks a microphone or a tape recorder in their face,' he says. Photo: Mike Monroe

His flight from the domestic airport in Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata, Argentina, was canceled when ash from the Puyehue volcano in Chile grounded all flights. With very limited Spanish-speaking skills, he had no idea how he'd get to the tournament site 250 miles away.

Then a man tapped him on the shoulder saying, "You're Mike Monroe from San Antonio." Danilo Ventura, from Cordoba, Argentina, a regular reader of Mr. Monroe's Spurs coverage online, was headed to the same tournament. He and his friends chartered a bus ^[21] and insisted on buying Mr. Monroe's ticket.

"We became great friends,� � Mr. Monroe says. "I have no idea what I would have done if he hadn't recognized me."

Write to Scott McCartney at middleseat@wsj.com ^[22]