At long last, hello from NYC!

I'm finally home from what feels like an eternity on the road. I don't know about you, but after a week away, I always get the itch to get back.

If you missed it: I was in Greece last week, flew to Boston to tour JetBlue's new lounge, and then hopped over to Vancouver for a trip through a corner of British Columbia that lived up to the hype. (More on that soon.)

But the travel didn't slow the news down. Here's everything you need to know — and have a great weekend!

Advertiser and Editorial Disclosure

American just announced its long-haul expansion for summer 2027: three new destinations across seven new routes.

The new destinations include Porto, Portugal; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Vienna, Austria.

Vienna is the only net-new destination. (Porto was announced earlier this year, and American served Iceland before the pandemic.)

A few storylines stand out:

I've got the full route list and my analysis below.

I’ve posted a few times about Rove, an airline, hotel, and shopping portal that awards miles you can transfer to 20 partner programs — including hard-to-reach ones like Lufthansa's Miles & More.

The company just announced a big expansion: you can now earn bonus miles at restaurants and in retail stores, on top of the points your credit card already earns.

The earning rates are among the best in the business. And when you book through the hotel portal, you stack Rove Miles on top of your usual loyalty points and status credits from the hotel itself.

Rove is free to join. And using my link gets you 1,500 miles as a sign-up bonus.

I still don’t understand how the company makes money, but if it means extra miles for you and me, I’m a fan.

I just got invited to what's shaping up to be the biggest Apple event of the year.

The tech giant is hosting its "Surprise and Shine" event in two weeks, and every rumor points to the same reveal: a foldable iPhone.

I'm all-in on the Apple ecosystem (sorry if you're reading this on an Android), and I'm always interested in new tech that could improve the travel experience.

I'll have plenty to report from the event. In the meantime, here's a poll I'd love you to answer.

A day before my flight home from Greece, I received an email warning: arrive at least three hours early because of extended Entry/Exit System lines in Athens.

The good news is that immigration "only" took about 45 minutes, and that's largely because airport authorities weren't using EES when we cleared.

The waiver that lets European airports pause EES during peak times is set to expire Sept. 6.

Airlines and airport officials have lobbied the EU for an extension, but recent reports suggest the EU isn't budging.

I'll keep you posted as this develops. If the waiver expires, expect a few chaotic weeks at immigration.

American Express is rolling out a slew of digital improvements to its travel and dining experience later this fall.

The first is already live in beta: an AI-powered travel wishlist you create with natural-language prompts.

Only a small fraction of cardholders can use the feature now — my account wasn’t eligible — but I'm curious to see what else Amex has coming.

This week, I flew JetBlue's 12-year-old Mint product from New York to Vancouver.

Mint was revolutionary when it launched. Today, the seats are woefully outdated.

I'm talking broken TV screens, beaten-up remotes, finicky seat control panels, and a tired cabin throughout. (Much like American's Airbus A321T.)

Premium products usually get replaced each decade, so JetBlue is overdue. Retrofitting a jet doesn't pay off in the short term, so I'm not holding my breath.

Consider yourself warned if you're booking the original Mint — at least the new one is much better.

The spa is one of my favorite and least favorite parts of staying at a fancy hotel. (Here are some of my other big hotel pet peeves.)

Quality varies wildly from property to property, and there's no way to know how good a massage will be until you're on the table.

Case in point: I had a lackluster massage in Greece. I asked the therapist for more pressure, and I still left the treatment as tight as I went in.

One of the most common asks I get from readers is help finding award availability.

I recommend a service like Thrifty Traveler that sends alerts for drops in award space, or Seats.aero to track a specific flight.

But there's one trick most travel "experts" don't talk about: married-segment logic.

Say you're flying from New York to Dubrovnik, Croatia. The prevailing wisdom has been to search each leg separately — New York to a major hub, then the intra-Europe segment.

These days, you should also search the full itinerary, especially with programs like Air France-KLM's Flying Blue.

You'll often find cheaper pricing and more availability once you add the connection. It saved me 40,000 miles the last time I used this trick.

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

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