What if I told you that a $50,000 luxury trip to Paris, London & Switzerland - flying First Class both ways, staying at five-star hotels - could cost you just $2,200 out of pocket?

That's not a hypothetical. That's exactly what my good friend Eli Facenda (known online as "Eli the Travel Guy") pulled off using credit card points strategies that most business owners have NO idea even exist.

And here's the thing - he did it using spend he was already making.

I recently sat down with Eli on the Marketing Minds Podcast & we went DEEP into exactly how business owners can leverage their existing spend - especially ad spend - to unlock insane travel experiences for pennies on the dollar.

I'm talking First Class flights, five-star hotel suites, airport lounges with $400 bottles of champagne - and you're barely paying anything out of pocket.

This is one of those episodes where I genuinely walked away thinking "Every business owner NEEDS to hear this."

And I can speak from personal experience here - I've personally worked with Eli & his team, and the results have been incredible. I've traveled to Athens, London, Amsterdam & I'm planning a trip to Japan - all on credit card points with very little dollars out of pocket.

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Here's a number that should stop you in your tracks.

If you're spending $1 million a year in your business (ads, payroll, operations, etc.) and you're doing this the average way - maybe a basic 2% cashback card - you're getting about $20,000 back in value.

But if you maximize your credit card strategy the right way? You could be getting around $90,000 back in value.

That's a $70,000 gap - and it's tax-free.

Let me put that into perspective for you. A business class ticket to Europe costs roughly $5,000 per person. That $70,000 gap represents 14 additional business class trips per year that you're leaving on the table.

If you have a family of four, that's three luxury European vacations a year - in business class for everyone - just from optimizing how you spend money you're already spending.

That is absolutely INSANE when you think about it.

And the best part? This isn't about spending more money. You're spending this money anyways on ads, on payroll, on operations. You might as well get an outsized return & get to go on these amazing trips.

Eli broke down the entire credit card points game into three simple buckets - and I love how simple he made this because it's easy for people to get overwhelmed with all the different strategies out there.

Here's the framework:

Step 1: Maximize Your Points Earnings

This is about making sure every dollar you spend earns the MOST and the BEST type of points possible.

Here's the key insight that blew my mind early on - not all points are created equal. Just like you wouldn't accept payment in Mexican pesos when your business runs in US dollars, you don't want to be earning the wrong type of points.

There are really three types of point currencies:

Non-Transferable Bank Points - These are bank points you can only redeem through the bank's travel site (like Bank of America or PNC). These give you terrible value. Avoid building your strategy around these.

Loyalty Points - These are airline miles & hotel points from cards like United, Southwest, Hilton, or Marriott cards. They lock you into one brand.

Transferable Bank Points - This right here is the HOLY GRAIL of the points game. These are currencies like AMEX Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards. These are the ones you want to be earning because they give you the flexibility to transfer to dozens of airline & hotel partners for maximum value.

Step 2: Maximize Your Upgrades & Perks

Once you have the right cards, you unlock a whole world of perks that transform your travel experience. Airport lounges, VIP security, free checked bags, early check-in, late checkout, suite upgrades at hotels - the list goes on.

I'll be honest - once you experience the lounge life, you can't go back. When I'm at an airport that doesn't have a lounge, it's honestly disappointing at this point because I've become so accustomed to it.

And the hotel upgrades are where things get really crazy. Eli shared that on his engagement trip to the Park Hyatt in Paris, he got upgraded to a suite worth $3,000 PER NIGHT for four nights. That's a $12,000 value upgrade - just from having the right hotel status, which he got from spending on the Hyatt business credit card.

Step 3: Maximize the Value of Your Points for Dream Trips

This is where the REAL magic happens - and it's the step most people completely miss. More on this below because this is a game-changer.

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Alright, this is a quick win that literally takes less than a minute to set up & can multiply your points earning immediately.

If you're running ads (which I know many of you are), you should be using a card that earns 3-4X points on every dollar of ad spend.

The AMEX Business Gold Card is a no-brainer for a lot of business owners because it earns 4X points on advertising spend.

But here's what most people DON'T know - and this was a huge one for me:

A LOT of people put their ad spend on the AMEX Business Platinum because they think "it's the most expensive card, so it must be the best." WRONG.

The AMEX Business Platinum actually only earns 25% of the points compared to the AMEX Business Gold for ad spend. That means if you're putting a lot of ad spend on the Platinum, you're getting a QUARTER of the trips you should be getting from the same spend.

That one single change alone can make a massive difference.

Now, one thing I ran into personally was that the AMEX Gold has a cap at $150,000 of annual spend for the bonus category - and we'd blow through that in a month or two with our ads. So the strategy becomes stacking multiple cards - the AMEX Gold, the Chase Ink Preferred, the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business - to extend that multiplier across more of your spend throughout the year.

This was the BIGGEST thing I had to learn - and honestly, it's where I was making the most mistakes before working with Eli's team.

There are three ways to use your points - and two of them are terrible:

Bad Option #1: Cash Out for Gift Cards, Statement Credits, or Amazon

This gives you about 20-25% of the total value you should be getting. It's a trap. The banks make it super easy to redeem on Amazon or get gift cards, but you're essentially lighting your points on fire.

Bad Option #2: Book Through the Bank's Travel Portal

In about 95% of cases, this is also a bad move because you're getting MAX 1 cent per point value. With a million points, that's only $10,000 in travel.

The RIGHT Way: Transfer Your Points to Airline & Hotel Partners

This is what Eli calls "Points Arbitrage" - and it is the KEY concept of the entire points game.

Here's how it works: When you book through the bank's portal, the price is tied to the cash price of the ticket. So a $5,000 business class flight costs 500,000 points.

But when you TRANSFER those points to the right airline partner, that same $5,000 flight might only cost 60,000 points.

Read that again. The same exact flight. Same seat. Same experience. But instead of 500,000 points, you're paying 60,000.

That means you're getting roughly 5-8 tickets for the price of one.

This is how Eli and his team are averaging about 4.5 cents per point in redemption value - compared to the 1 cent most people get. And it's how they turned roughly 800,000 points into a $50,000 engagement trip for just $2,200 out of pocket.

I asked Eli to break down exactly how that trip came together, and the details are incredible:

Outbound Flight: Two First Class seats on Emirates (with the in-flight shower & bar!) from JFK to Milan - 200,000 points + $200 for a $20,000 experience

Switzerland: Suite at a luxury property on Lake Lucern - upgraded to a $3,000/night suite using AMEX Fine Hotels & Resorts perks

Paris: Four nights at the Park Hyatt - upgraded to a suite worth $13,000 total using Globalist status

London: W Hotel downtown - suite upgrades using points & status

Return Flight: Virgin Atlantic Retreat Suites (the premium first-class-style seats in business class) from London to New York - 21,000 points per person for a $10,000 seat

That last one is wild. 21,000 points for a $10,000 seat. He caught a 40% transfer bonus from AMEX to Virgin Atlantic & combined it with a promo fare. That kind of strategic timing is what separates getting 1 cent per point from getting 5+ cents.

This is one of the questions I was most excited to ask Eli because it's something a lot of business owners wonder about.

Eli's take: He's a Chase guy overall. Chase has some transfer partners that AMEX doesn't, and the new Points Boost feature inside the Chase travel portal adds a nice extra layer of value for hotels that aren't part of a points program.

I would concur - my eye has definitely shifted more toward Chase with the recent updates. But AMEX is a very close second, and depending on where you live, it might edge Chase out for the top spot.

The good news? They compete with each other constantly, and that competition means better perks & features for us.

Best Hotel Program: Hyatt, hands down. A five-star hotel night might cost 300,000-400,000 Hilton points, 100,000 Marriott points, but only 35,000-40,000 Hyatt points. The value difference is massive.

Best Domestic Airline: Delta for the most consistent & reliable experience. American for the best overall points value & easiest path to top-tier status through spend.

Eli closed out our conversation with an advanced golden nugget that I think is going to blow some minds.

Most business owners believe you can't put payroll on a credit card. You can.

Yes, there's a 2.9% fee to do it. But if you do it right, you can get 7-9% back in travel value.

Here's the math: You earn 2 points per dollar on payroll spend. Eli's team averages 4.5 cents per point in redemptions. So 2 points x 4.5 cents = 9% back in value. Minus the 2.9% fee, that's roughly a 6% net positive on every dollar of payroll.

Take your annual payroll spend & multiply it by 6%. That's additional value you could be getting - tax-free - turned into luxury travel for you, your family, or your team.

This is a super 1% leading edge kind of move & it's not for everyone - but if you have significant payroll & you want more points, this is a game-changer.

We covered SO much more in the full podcast episode that I couldn't fit into this newsletter - including deeper dives into routing strategies, how to find the best flight deals, the specific perks of each card, and a lot more advanced tips.

If you got value from this newsletter, you're going to LOVE the full episode!

Watch the Full Episode on YouTube Here!

And if you want to check out Eli's free resources - including the CEO Points Playbook & the Payroll on Credit Cards Guide - head to freedomtravelsystems.com/adoutreach (we'll link it in the video description too).

I can speak from personal experience - working with Eli & his team has been a game-changer for me & my team. You don't know what you don't know, and even if you feel like you're already intermediate with this stuff, there's SO much more that you're leaving on the table.

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- Aleric Heck | Founder & CEO of AdOutreach

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