How to Travel for Free as a Small Business Owner with Credit Card Points
One of the best perks of being a small business owner is credit card points!
The first year of being self-employed and running my own business, I was a mess financially. I still am! It’s a lot to understand, but the one thing I have actually figured out is how to travel for free thanks to credit card points.
Redeeming credit card points for personal travel, that you earn from spending money on your business, is 100% free and a HUGE perk of working for yourself.
In the last year, I have racked up hundreds of thousands of points and reached 50k status on Aeroplan, which means I get a *ton* of shit for free (and a way better traveling experience), so I wanted to show you how I did it so you can do it too!
Now, I have to say: credit card points are definitely structured so “the rich get richer.”
The more money you spend, the more free shit you get. So keep that in mind while you’re reading this, if you’re spending $1k/month on your credit card, it unfortunately isn’t going to get you very far. But if you’re spending a lot of money on business expenses (inventory, ads, invoices, etc) then it can quickly rack up.
In this post, I am going to walk you through how I structure my finances to maximize credit card points and business expenses, and then I am going to talk about the specific credit cards I use:
1. How to Structure Your Business and Personal Expenses
So first things first: you’re going to get a kickass business credit card, and you’re going to pay a high fee for the card.
Then, you’re going to put as many business expenses on your credit card as you can. Paying an invoice? If there’s an option to pay by credit card without an extra fee, do it.
If your business runs any social media ads, you can rack up points SO quickly, so put all that spend on your business card.
When you’re traveling for business, you are going to pay for your flights and hotels. You do not redeem points for business travel, because all of those costs are business expenses that can work as a write-off.
Also, make sure you aren’t buying the absolute cheapest fare, because usually you will only get 50% of the miles that you would by spending a little bit more (if you’re on Air Canada, buy the Flex fare).
Save all your credit card points for when you travel for personal trips. This is effectively the “formula” that you can use to benefit personally from your business expenses. If my husband is flying somewhere, I always book his flights on points as well, since he isn’t working towards airline status (he gets my benefits when he travels with me).
In 2022, I got 15 personal flights for free for me and my husband by paying for them with Aeroplan points. Our entire trip to Hawaii (flights and hotel with an epic view) was FREE:
(One thing to note that I didn’t realize until recently, is that if you buy a flight on points, you don’t accrue points for that flight, so it doesn’t count towards your status).
In my case, I use my business credit card to rack up airline points, and then I use my personal credit card to earn transferable points, that I can use to book flights OR hotels.
2. How to Structure Your Credit Cards for Maximum Points
The #1 most important thing is that you don’t incur credit card debt - this strategy is only effective if you are paying off your balance each month! Otherwise the interest outweighs the points earned.
You also want to keep your credit utilization at 30% - so if you have a $10k limit, using $3k. (But to be honest, I rarely follow that rule, which is an area of opportunity for me to improve my credit from good to great).
Your credit cards are going to look like this:
A kickass business credit card for all your business expenses, likely tied to a airline or hotel carrier to maximize travel perks
A kickass personal credit card for all your personal expenses, chosen to maximize your highest spending categories
If both are Amex (like in my case), then you’ll need a third card that is a Visa or Mastercard for places that don’t accept Amex.
Choosing Your Business Credit Card:
The first thing you need to do is get a kickass business credit card. What do you want to earn the most rewards for: flights or hotels?
Staying loyal to one airline is a MUST for racking up points and status so you can get upgraded, so I chose to go with an Air Canada card, since I prefer to stay at boutique hotels, but Marriott has a great Amex Bonvoy card too if that’s more your style (my mom is their highest status level and she constantly gets upgraded along with a ton of other perks).
So you’re going to pick a business credit card that allows you to either earn flight or hotel perks.
For my business expenses, I use the American Express Aeroplan Business Reserve card, which is a partner card with Air Canada (you can find a similar card if you are in the US for your favourite airline carrier, like the Delta Skymiles Amex).
If you’re in the US, you can take the lessons I outline in this blog and just sub them for your airline of choice, so every time I talk about Aeroplan Amex it can be the Skymiles Amex, for example.
The card costs $599 - it’s not cheap. But a) it’s a business expense and b) you will end up saving SO much money in the long run.
For example:
You can earn 90k bonus Aeroplan points in the first year, which is a ton of flights (I pay about 30k points for roundtrip flight Vancouver - NYC).
You never have to pay for travel insurance because it’s all covered through your card (yes, even renting a car - skip those expensive insurance policies!). Phone gets stolen on vacation? You get a new one.
You get 1 buddy pass to use for a free flight
And then there’s all the perks for traveling you get as soon as you get your card (instead of having to wait to earn status):
Access to Maple Leaf lounge (free food and drinks)
Priority checked bag (goodbye carryon, and your bag comes out first)
Priority check in (no long waits)
Priority boarding (no long lines)
Ok, I won’t go on and on…just trust me, I loveee this card.
The goal of having a credit card with an airline is to increase your status with the airline, which will give you even more free perks and points (with Aeroplan they’re called e-upgrades) that you can use for upgrades to business class for FREE!
For example, I recently flew from NYC - Vancouver for free on points, and then I used my e-upgrades and got upgraded to Business Class in a pod…and it was all totally FREE:
My Aeroplan Amex is the only reason I have been able to work my way up to 50k status, and that’s because you don’t have to actually fly to earn status.
You can just spend money.
You collect SQMs and SQD’s (points talk) for simply spending money, so I don’t have to fly as many miles in order to actually accrue miles flown.
In 2022, I accumulated 62,912 SQM (miles I flew on flights I paid for), but in reality I actually only few about 26,000 SQM. So I was able to more than double my SQM just from spending money on my credit card!
And that’s because for every $5k you spend, you earn 1000 SQM - like I said, you can just spend money to increase your status, instead of having to actually fly all the time. So if you’re spending a lot of money on your business credit card, this will quickly add up to increase your status so you get even more free shit.
If you want to apply, please use my referral link! You can earn more points that way - up to 90k, instead of the 85k offer on their website.
Choosing Your Personal Credit Card
I used to just use the Visa that came with my bank RBC - I paid $99/year and wow, was that a terrible idea. Avion points SUCK. Do not just use the credit card from your bank, look for one that actually has a really great rewards program.
For example, unlike the points that came with my bank’s credit card, I’m also able to earn Aeroplan points every time I use Uber, UberEats, or buy Starbucks. And I can shop via their e-store to earn points per dollar at stores like Sephora, BestBuy, or Apple, it’s just like a referral link that you click on first to take you to a website.
I do this every time I’m making a big purchase, for example when I bought my MacBook it was 4 points/dollar, so I earned about 12k Aeroplan points, which I used to book a round trip flight from Vancouver to LA. PLUS I earned more points for using my Aeroplan credit card since it was a business expense. Whaaaat?!
Your personal credit card should be maximized based on your spending categories - for example, if you spend a lot of money on groceries and dining, then the American Express Gold Card is probably a great fit for you (and it’s $250, which is a lot more affordable, and you’ll get about $500 in value in points).
I knew that I was going on a bucket list trip to Europe and would be spending a lot of money on travel, so after loving my Amex Aeroplan card so much, I decided to bite the bullet and open an American Express Platinum card for my personal expenses, since you earn a ton of points on travel.
My motivation for doing this was two-fold:
I was traveling to Europe and I wanted lounge access everywhere (Air Canada doesn’t have Maple Leaf lounges in every airport)
I wanted to have flexibility with my points so I could use them to book hotels too, instead of only racking up airline points (of which I had many at this point).
That second point is important, and which is why Amex Rewards points are so amazing: they are transferable. I earn Membership Rewards points, which I can then redeem on hotels through Amex’s Fine Hotels & Resorts program (like I did for our last minute trip to Greece), or I can transfer them to another rewards system.
When we went to Greece, we booked this amazing hotel with our own private pool and I saved $1000 by redeeming my points and using my $200 travel credit:
If I’m wanting to redeem points for a business class flight on Air Canada but I don’t have enough Aeroplan points - I can just transfer my Amex points into Aeroplan points. Or transfer them to Bonvoy points and book any hotel through them, the options are endless!
This podcast episode with The Points Guy explains a lot about why it’s so helpful to have flexibility by transferring points.
This card costs $699 per year, which is a lot, but there were so many perks to this card that I knew I would not lose money by trying it out for a year:
Up to 85k welcome points in the first year (worth $850)
You automatically get a $200 travel credit to use on flights, hotel, whatever
Free Nexus ($100)
You automatically get Gold Status at Hilton and Bonvoy, which means access to lounges, guaranteed late 4pm checkout, and other perks (when I was in LA I got $30/day in free food or beverage charges)
Access to a TON of airline lounges (not every lounge - more on that later)
They regularly have offers from brands, so for example they had one where if you spent $100 on lululemon, you would get $50 back. So 50% off lulu!
All in all, you’re easily making at least $500 on the cost of your card, plus getting a ton of points and perks. It is a big upfront cost, but it really does pay off.
If you want to apply, you’ll get more welcome points by using my referral link! 85k points instead of 80k, hurray!
As for my third credit card, since I needed one that was not Amex and I wanted one that was free, I use my NeoCard for cash back. There is no point for me getting points on another rewards system, so I might as well just get cash back (and they have the best cash back card in Canada).
You can get $25 when you sign up for a NeoCard using my link here!
Now, a quick note about lounge access. If you’re travelling internationally, Priority Pass kind of sucks. The lounges aren’t the nicest and you don’t always get in. I’ve found the Amex Platinum to be great for North America, but outside of that, not amazing.
For example, in Heathrow, there was no lounges in the terminal I was in, and the Air Canada Heathrow lounge was only available to 35k and above, which I wasn’t at yet.
It’s been way more beneficial for me to work on growing my Air Canada status to 50k, because that is considered “Star Alliance Gold”, which means I get access to every Star Alliance lounge around the world for me and a gust, and there is basically one in almost every airport.
So if you want to upgrade specifically for international lounge access, it’s a good thing to know. I’m not sure if I will renew my Amex Platinum next year, I might switch to Gold because it’s a lower fee and if I keep my 50k status, then I won’t need the lounge access from Amex Platinum.
3. Booking Hotels with Points
I am super loyal to my airline (in my case, Air Canada), but I have no loyalty to any hotel chains. Generally I like to stay at boutique hotels, but the good news is that you can still earn points by staying loyal to a booking app!
If the hotel I want to stay at is offered on Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts, I will book it through them because I get guaranteed late check out, upgrades if available, and a welcome gift like a bottle of bubbly.
Don’t sleep on guaranteed late check out - it’s such a HUGE perk if you’re not flying out until later! This was our welcome gift in Greece:
If it’s not offered through Amex Fine Hotels, then I will almost always book my hotel on Booking.com. They have a rewards system as well, so you earn points in your “wallet” that you can then redeem at most of their hotels. I also just generally like the UX of their app and having all my hotel stays organized in one place.
Recently I used my Booking.com “Wallet” to redeem a free stay in Milan (value: $800/night, see below) and it paid for half my stay at a Hilton for a music festival in LA (and since I had Hilton Gold status from my Amex, I got $120 in free food and beverage credit from them too).
I would strongly recommend you do not book your flights through sites like Booking.com or Expedia - if the flight is oversold, these are the first fares that get bumped off the flight.
Conclusion
I wanted to give you a picture of what travelling is like for me now that I have reached 50k status on Air Canada thanks to putting all of my business expenses on my American Express Aeroplan Business Reserve card for the past 8 months.
I don’t have to show up as early to the airport, because I get priority check in and priority security (save time on lines). I always check a bag, because it’s free and it comes out first. I can also have a heavier bag (!!) so I never worry about it being overweight (and I get 3 free checked bags so I check them for friends too).
I never spend money in airports because I get free food and drinks in the lounge, and I’m more zen because I can chill in the lounge before my flight. I can board the flight whenever I want because I have priority boarding, and I get free alcoholic drinks in economy too.
I always book the preferred seats in economy (more room), but now they are FREE for me! On 35k status, they are 50% off. If I’m just flying to LA, these seats cost $35, but if I’m flying to Hawaii or NYC, they are $75 - each way. So this is a huge savings!
And that’s not even mentioning the biggest perk: flying for free by booking flights on my Aeroplan points.
Even better? Getting upgraded to business class for FREE!
And when I stay in hotels, I can check out until 4pm and get free food and beverage credit, a free welcome gift, and usually access to a lounge for free snacks. Plus, I get a ton of points on my credit card because it’s a travel purchase!
Like I said in the beginning of this post, it’s very much a case of “the rich get richer.” The more you spend on your credit card, the easier it is to travel.
There’s a lot of annoying financial things about running your own small business (like, taxes) so you might as well optimize your finances to benefit you the most! And the reality is that you likely spend way more money on your business credit card than your personal credit card, so make sure you make the system work for you instead of against you.
I’ve only been on this points journey for less than a year, so I would welcome any feedback on my strategies too from the points veterans in the comments too :)