Happy Friday!

Or, as I like to call it, happy iPhone day to everyone tracking a UPS truck this morning.

I just got home from Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship, where new CEO John Ternus opened the doors to a crowd of customers itching to get their hands on the new gear.

I was invited to something special before the doors even opened. More on that in my Instagram stories today.

For everyone wondering: I upgraded to a burgundy iPhone 18 Pro Max, and I plan to move to the foldable iPhone Duo when it launches on Oct. 23.

Now that all my tech is sorted, let's get into today's edition. And don’t miss the “news you can use” at the bottom — it’s packed today.

Advertiser and Editorial Disclosure

I opened my Verizon bill this week and found a $75 charge for international calling. (That's more than I normally pay for a month of unlimited service.)

When I was in Greece last month, I used Verizon's $12-a-day TravelPass on my backup phone for a few days. I made plenty of calls to U.S. and Greek numbers — both of which were supposed to be covered.

Turns out some of those calls went out while I was connected to Wi-Fi, and my phone automatically switched to Wi-Fi Calling.

The good news is that Wi-Fi Calling treats your phone like it's at home. (So phone calls should be included whether or not you bought the $12-a-day pass.)

But because I was on Wi-Fi when I dialed Greek numbers, Verizon coded those calls as international long distance, not international roaming.

Hence the $75 bill, despite being in Greece and seemingly playing by the TravelPass rules.

First, lesson learned.

If you're on Verizon — or seemingly any other carrier — Wi-Fi calls to foreign numbers count as long distance, no matter where you're physically standing.

Fortunately, I'm still in touch with their executive relations team from my recent frustrations over their service. They credited the charges.

And for those asking, I've been testing T-Mobile on my primary phone for the past month. I've been impressed, and I'm inching closer to switching.

(For those new here, I've written extensively about how frustrated I've become with Verizon's service at crowded venues across the country — airports, sporting events, and subway stations especially.)

The September edit is now complete. (Goodness knows I need it, looking at the upcoming temps in New York.)

My wife outsourced her picks to one of her trusty — and stylish — friends. Hope you enjoy!

Women

Men

Travel gear and tech

If you asked my Twitter feed, AI has already revolutionized the travel journey.

I’ve seen people (or bots?) say that AI agents have planned their entire trips. A new AI concierge app called Miso, which has been clogging my algorithm, promises to make booking more seamless. Then, you have airlines and hotels running AI revenue management, which is a fancy way of saying higher fares.

My experience says otherwise. AI still has a long way to go to truly revolutionize travel.

I'm happy to outsource the menial stuff, like monitoring flight and hotel prices. But researching, booking, and managing a trip is too messy to hand off to today's tools.

Los Angeles is probably the most competitive airline market in the country. Every major U.S. carrier has a hub there, and none of them outright dominates.

Delta's latest move could change that. The airline just announced it'll fly its largest-ever schedule from LAX next summer.

That's two new routes and added frequencies on seven existing ones, pushing Delta to more than 200 peak-day departures.

You'll find the full list of new and expanded service below. But if there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that Delta operates the nicest, most premium terminal at LAX.

Chase is about to make a big change to its Ultimate Rewards program.

Effective Oct. 1, points transferred to World of Hyatt will convert at a 4:3 ratio, instead of the 1:1 ratio that’s in place today.

This applies to those with the following cards:

If you’ve been eyeing a Hyatt transfer and you have one of those cards, I’ll soon break down everything you need to know — including my analysis on whether you should speculatively transfer and what move to make next.

That said, one solution to this devaluation is opening the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. This card still offers 1:1 Hyatt transfers and complements the Preferred.

You can officially hold both the Preferred and Reserve — that rule recently changed.

(Note that if you end up applying for the Reserve through my affiliate link, I'll earn a small commission that keeps this newsletter free. Thanks in advance!)

The TSA may soon let Precheck travelers bring full water bottles through security. But there's a workaround most people don't know about. (At least based on what I see at the airport.)

You can bring frozen liquids through security.

Before I get to the airport, I always fill my water bottle with ice. And when our daughter was smaller, we'd cool her milk with frozen ice packs that went right through the checkpoint.

Just note that this only applies in the U.S. Many other countries judge liquids by their state at room temperature, not whether they're frozen.

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