Happy Friday from 10,000 feet as I'm about to land in Atlanta.

For what? All will be revealed shortly, but you can probably guess which company I'm visiting.

One quick favor before we dive in: some of my recent emails have been landing in spam or Promotions due to a bug. If you want to keep seeing these, please drag this email into your Primary inbox.

Otherwise, let's get right into business.

Advertiser and Editorial Disclosure

One of my favorite credit cards just hit its highest-ever public welcome bonus.

Spoiler: it's a phenomenally good deal. So good that I even convinced (read: told) my wife to apply.

If you've been on the fence or want to learn more, here's my full review. It’s the perfect item to add to your weekend to-do list.

Questions? Hit reply.

If you missed Wednesday's newsletter, my wife and I rounded up some of our favorite outfits for May.

I promised a selection of my top gear picks, too.

And ending with two of the most popular outfit picks this month:

If my X feed is any indication, hantavirus is about to disrupt travel and society the same way Covid did six years ago. (Crazy that it's already been six years.)

In case you haven't been doomscrolling, hantavirus supposedly spreads through sustained close human-to-human contact after someone is first infected by a rodent.

There's a cruise ship in the Atlantic — which, as a non-cruiser myself, otherwise looks like a lovely vessel — dealing with an outbreak that's unfortunately led to three deaths.

I wasn't an alarmist when Covid was getting started, and that hasn't changed. I'm curious about your take, though.

It seems like everyone is worried about their summer Euro trip.

Not because of a possible jet fuel shortage, but because of the new digital European immigration process.

The Entry/Exit System (EES) launched less than a month ago across the bloc, and it's already causing major issues.

Some travelers are waiting hours to clear immigration, missing connections, and onward plans.

I just went through EES for the first time and put together a free guide to beating the system.

I ran out of Monopoly money, and not because I kept landing in jail.

My monthly rent bill just posted to my Bilt account, and this was the last month I had enough Bilt Cash to earn full points on rent.

If you're not familiar, Bilt Cash is a made-up proprietary currency that can be redeemed for different perks in the Bilt ecosystem. I redeem it toward earning points on housing payments (at a rate of $30 Bilt Cash per 1,000 points earned on rent).

Unless you're spending on a Bilt credit card, you're probably not earning much, if any, Bilt Cash. (I haven't been using my Bilt Palladium Card much lately because its tech and transaction history reporting are so bad.)

Going forward, I'll start paying rent directly to my landlord via ACH. I'll reevaluate down the line, but it looks like I'll close my Bilt card when the $495 annual fee renews early next year.

How about you?

This is my favorite time of year for consumer tech.

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off in less than a month, and that's where we'll learn the new software features coming to our devices.

Then, in the fall, we'll get the flagship product launch event (headlined by new CEO John Ternus), which is expected to debut a foldable iPhone, new AirPods, and a few other Pro-level smartphones.

On the software side, I'm watching to see if Apple has fixed Siri, deployed more meaningful AI enhancements, and made the rumored new custom Wallet passes actually useful for travel. (I bet they will be.)

On my way home from Rome, I flew American's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to New York.

Sadly, this wasn't American's fancy new Dreamliner with Flagship Suites, but it did feature the legacy Super Diamond reverse-herringbone biz, which is still supremely comfortable.

I love that American is now offering mattress pads on all long-haul flights, though I wish someone had paid more attention to detail and added a cutout for the shoulder belt. (Like Alaska did.)

Without it, you can't use the mattress pad during taxi, takeoff, or landing.

Other highlights: a very tasty meal (Rome catering is consistently among the best in the business), a comfy bed, and lots of storage.

Two areas that desperately need improvement:

There's one premium credit card perk that consistently flies under the radar. (Pun intended.)

It's called trip delay protection, and some of my top recommended cards include it.

Here's why it's such a big deal. Last year, I experienced six significant flight delays or cancellations. I needed to buy last-minute replacement flights and, in two cases, cover an extra hotel night, meals, and rideshares.

By simply paying for my airfare on the right credit card, I earned $500 in compensation with minimal effort. Better yet, this perk often applies to award tickets where you pay the taxes and fees on a covered card.

Using these links is the easiest way to support FTTT — and I only recommend what I actually use.

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