How Itinerary Boss turns business payments into dream vacations with Melio
Meet Itinerary Boss
Itinerary Boss is a consultancy that helps professionals and business owners turn spending into premium travel rewards. Founder Ross Alcorn built the firm based on lessons learned from running his own real estate investment company, Mike Ross Properties: traditional payment methods like wires and ACH leave massive value on the table.
The challenge
For years, Ross invested in real estate and faced the same friction many investors encountered: paying for everything with wires and ACH transfers. For high-spend businesses the challenge is not necessarily the payment itself but the opportunity cost of using traditional methods. On just six closings alone, Ross made over $146,000 in wire payments. “Closings, vendors, rehab costs — money was constantly moving out of my pocket. But none of it was earning anything,” Ross said.
Across just a few properties, renovation costs added up to an additional $20,000 paid to vendors who didn’t accept credit cards. “As someone who likes to travel and earns points on everything, that started to bother me,” Ross said.
“Melio is the bridge that allows me to use my business credit cards for expenses, even when the vendor only accepts bank transfers. Not using a card is just leaving money on the table.”
The solution
As Ross questioned why vendor payments can’t be made with a credit card, he discovered strategic tools that allow such payments even when vendors don’t accept cards directly. “One example is Melio. I used it during a rehab project and paid a vendor using a 0% interest business credit card,” Ross said.
That decision triggered a 100,000-point welcome bonus, which was redeemed for a $5,600 seat in Qatar Airways’ Q Suites for his honeymoon trip to Thailand.
Ross’s biggest realization was that investors and business owners regularly move huge amounts of money through wires and ACH while earning nothing. This led to the creation of Itinerary Boss, where he now helps other business owners turn standard expenses, including payments to vendors, contractors, software and advertising, into points and travel.
Ross also helps his clients, who typically spend over $30,000 a month, understand where they can be more strategic with their spending. Paying with credit cards through Melio provides flexibility, expands their cash flow float, and saves on credit line interest payments.
“Depending on which credit card they’re using, clients could be getting a 0% interest loan for up to 50 or 60 days. That’s a huge boost to cash flow and those extra days could be massive to their bottom line,” Ross said.
Since adopting Melio, Ross has not only transformed his clients’ working capital but also created a powerful growth engine for his own consultancy.
Results
By partnering with Melio as an affiliate, Ross brings clients onto the platform to drive mutual success and significant results:
- Optimized Cash Flow: Clients use the “float” provided by their credit card cycle to bridge the gap between paying vendors and receiving client payments, keeping more liquidity in their businesses.
- Point Compounding: By avoiding wire payments, Ross and his clients generate millions of additional points annually, which can be used to fund premium personal travel.
- Simplified B2B Payments: Melio’s streamlined experience has removed the administrative burden of traditional banking.
- Client Retention: Advising on tools and resources to optimize points rewards is a key offering of Itinerary Boss. Ross advises his clients to use Melio because he’s tried other platforms, uses it in his own business and clients have mentioned how simple it is and the benefits it offers. By partnering with Melio, Ross generated a new revenue stream and increased client stickiness for his own firm.
