Three cheers for New Hampshire

I just got back from what could have been a most terrible trip to Portsmouth, New Hampshire (I was there for the IPR Summit on Measurement. More to come on that). US Airways, which took me from New York to Philly before heading north to Manchester, got me to the connection about an hour late, leaving me with 15 minutes to get from one plane to the other. When I asked the flight attendant if my bag would make it to the next flight (I had to check it because of the deadly threat to national security that my lip gloss and hand lotion posed), she said my odds were 50/50. "It is Philadelphia," she said.

Hmm... OK. So the bag didn't make it. But, the shuttle I'd reserved to meet me at Manchester airport did. Not only did I have my own shuttle van since I was the only customer of the night, the van came equipped with a cooler filled with beer, soda, and wine. So I chugged a mini-bottle of merlot as we made our way (45 minutes!) to the Sheraton.

Then, while checking in, I mentioned my winding path to Portsmouth and my delayed bag, and the folks at the Sheraton tossed me a one-bedroom suite, bigger than my Manhattan apartment and equipped with a fireplace, a balcony, and a dishwasher, at no extra charge. It's likely that the room would've stayed empty and it was no skin off their nose to let me crash there for a night. But that's even more to the point - where it didn't hurt them to do something nice for a customer who'd had a hard day? I stayed warm in front of the fireplace until my pajamas showed up at the hotel at 3am.