Hello from NYC!

I’m back home from my trip to Dallas this week, which mostly went off without a hitch — until an hour before I landed back in New York.

I’ll be in town for the weekend with my family before heading off to Europe on Sunday night. Most importantly, I’ll have a firsthand report from my next encounter with the new immigration system.

Quick heads up: Chase just confirmed that its limited-time offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is officially ending soon.

More on that below, but if you’ve been procrastinating, this is your moment.

Advertiser and Editorial Disclosure

For the second week in a row, I dodged a weather diversion into NYC. (Here’s the wild story from last week.)

About 400 miles from LaGuardia, the captain came on the PA to say we’d be entering an extended hold due to weather — and that we’d divert if fuel got low.

While we circled, a Flighty push notification told me my dad’s flight to LGA — which was a few miles ahead of us — was diverting to Richmond. Nearly every other airborne flight to LaGuardia was doing the same.

I started scoping out backup transportation. If you’re diverted within 200 miles of your destination, I always suggest booking a train or rental car as a backup.

Just then, by some miracle, the captain got clearance to exit the hold and start our descent into LaGuardia.

When I landed, I saw why we’d been circling. A string of thunderstorms had rolled through, and the city was under a blanket of thick smoke from the Canadian wildfires.

If you’ve been thinking about the rare 100,000-point welcome offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, I have news for you (and your to-do list).

Chase just told me this offer is officially ending soon.

You’ll earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 within the first three months. I’m still waiting on a concrete end date, but I wouldn’t expect it to last much longer.

A few key points for anyone on the fence:

This is only the third time that Chase has offered such a lucrative offer on this card. I even applied for it myself, and this is what happened next.

Here's my referral link and my review of the offer if you're thinking about it. (As always, appreciate your support if you apply via my link.)

Questions? As always, hit reply.

If you’ve been reading this week’s newsletters, you won’t be surprised that Delta confirmed its first-ever service to Manila.

The airline will connect Los Angeles to the Philippine capital starting March 28, launching 3x-weekly service before ramping up to daily on June 7.

Delta will fly its flagship Airbus A350-900 on the route.

The move has been all but confirmed for months and comes as Delta fights for dominance at LAX.

Alaska, American, Southwest, and United all have hubs there, too, and with the 2028 LA Olympics on the horizon — where Delta is a marquee sponsor — expect more investment ahead.

Chase’s new masterpiece — its Sapphire Lounge at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) — is officially open.

The 18,000-square-foot space delivers, and it’ll quickly become the best credit card lounge at DFW. (The airport is now home to an Amex, Capital One, and Chase outpost.)

I’m already itching to get back into that whiskey bar — more pictures in my review below.

If you’re passing through, I can’t recommend this lounge enough. Better yet, Priority Pass members can visit one Chase lounge a year. This might be the one to use it on.

(And if you want unlimited access to Chase lounges, I explain what you need to know in my review below.)

I’m heading back to Europe yet again.

This time, I’m starting in the U.K., where I’ll be attending my first-ever airshow. I’ve talked to a few former colleagues about what to expect, but I still don’t think I’m prepared for the chaos.

If you’re heading to the Farnborough International Airshow, let me know — I’d love to meet up.

I’ll also have another encounter with EES at the end of the trip. Bookmark my updated EES guide and keep an eye on your inbox.

When I landed at DFW this week, the first thing I saw was the airport’s new flight information displays.

Guess what? They look a lot like United’s new ones.

Each flight gets a box, which means you can fit many more flights on a given screen.

What the designers missed is how much harder it is to glance at your flight info.

I’m not sure why it needs to be so complicated. As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I think I’ve found the silliest loophole in New York City.

Every morning, I see tons of people sitting in their cars for 90 minutes during street-cleaning hours.

If you sit in your car, you don’t need to move it or get a ticket. At least not on the block near me. (Most blocks require you to move your car for the three minutes when the street cleaner drives by.)

In fact, plenty of people instead collect the tickets because it’s cheaper than garaging a car in Manhattan.

I know this is a travel newsletter, but there has to be a better solution. If I were home more often, I’d also turn my car into a mobile office twice a week.

I recently wrote about why now’s a great time to start a status match.

One program I neglected to mention: National’s Executive Club. You can match nearly any airline or hotel status to National and get an instant upgrade.

I’ve had great luck with luxury-car upgrades using National status — better than anything I’ve gotten from Avis or Hertz, even with their top-tier status.

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

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