This was probably the biggest weekend in travel so far this year.

We lost an airline that even the haters will miss. I'm also back from Rome and ready to catch you up on everything else you need to know.

But first, a quick reminder: one of the best limited-time credit card offers just launched. If you haven’t checked out my breakdown yet, I promise it’s worth a peek.

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Sponsored by SAP Concur

I've been thinking a lot about business travel lately — and not just because I'm on the road most weeks.

Business travel matters more than ever. But the actual experience of taking a work trip — booking, expense management, support — is still frustratingly fragmented.

New data backs this up.

More than 90% of frequent travelers say business trips positively impacted their careers, but roughly 80% of respondents also report extending their work hours on business trips, according to SAP Concur's Business Travel Opportunity Gap survey.

Companies often forget that business travelers are also leisure travelers. They know how good consumer-grade tools have become and wish they could use them for business trips.

Fortunately, there’s progress.

SAP Concur and Amex GBT recently launched Complete, an AI-powered platform that combines booking, servicing, payments, and expensing into one workflow. It streamlines a lot, but I’m most excited about the expense report automation.

AI agents can automatically build the expense report for you and flag receipt discrepancies before it even hits your manager’s inbox.

I recently penned an article about how the business travel experience is finally catching up. You’ll probably enjoy it, especially because it includes some personal stories from the road.

Rakuten — the online shopping portal that gives you cash back, Amex points, or Bilt points for your purchases — is holding a massive 15% off event at hundreds of retailers.

The list includes travel-friendly brands like Expedia, Viator, and Samsonite.

You’ll get 15% back, either in cash or points, for purchases you were probably going to make anyway. And yes, this stacks with your credit card rewards, sales, and merchant promo codes.

If you don’t yet have a Rakuten account, here’s my referral link for $50 after spending $50 or more at any eligible merchant.

It finally happened. Spirit Airlines no longer exists. And honestly, that feels weird to write.

Here are the eight things I’ll miss most about Spirit, in no particular order:

Without Spirit putting pressure on rivals to keep fares low, this new era of higher fares will likely persist even after the fuel crisis ends.

In my mind, two of the biggest questions now are:

A few days before my flight home, American Airlines warned me to arrive at Rome Fiumicino at least 3.5 hours before departure.

That’s because the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System was supposedly still causing serious backlogs.

Well, I’m pleased to report that it took me just 15 minutes to clear the new automated exit immigration process.

I'd estimate about 30% of travelers had no idea how to use the machines. The rest of the delay came from traveling during the peak departure window.

Here’s how to become an EES pro:

Leaving Europe is much less cumbersome than entering, especially if it’s your first time using EES.

As I’m preparing to launch my May edit (coming in Wednesday’s edition), I've noticed a frustrating new trend among online retailers.

After years of promising free returns, many big brands are now making you pay for return shipping.

I don’t like when companies give you something for free and then quietly take it away.

Even wilder, some retailers now let you prepay for return shipping at a discount at checkout.

In one recent example, I could upgrade to free returns during the purchase process for $4. Otherwise, the return label would cost $12 after the fact.

If free returns are becoming a thing of the past, premium credit cards should step in and add this as a benefit. (RIP ShopRunner.)

I just got back from a few days in Rome with an Apple note full of recommendations.

Plus, I folded in the best of what you shared when I asked for recs last week.

Finding discounted “saver” award space is getting much harder. One thing most people forget to check is what I call the married-segment trick.

Say you’re trying to fly from London to New York, but you can’t find any award availability.

Try searching from London to Richmond instead, and look for the itinerary that connects in New York.

More often than not, adding a domestic connection can unlock cheaper saver awards that don’t appear on the nonstop route.

I’ve seen this work with American AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles, and a few other programs.

Of course, only book itineraries that you’ll actually fly. Skiplagging is technically against airline contracts of carriage.

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