How to get paid for your delayed flights

I want to start off the day by telling you about regulation EU261/2004 as related to air passenger protection rights in the European Union.

Wait, wait, before you run away, what if I told you that by reading this you could earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars in cash money for your delayed flights?

Obviously, I took the voucher. I travel so much that an airline voucher is as good as cash to me, so I made out like a bandit on this one.

Additionally, Canada recently passed similar laws entitling passengers to cash compensation on flights to, from, or within Canada. Fingers crossed that the U.S. does something similar in the near future. But that might bankrupt the airlines based on their track records this summer…

If you've ever wanted to explore the sandy beaches of Cancun, look in awe at the pyramids of Teotihuacan, or eat a delicious Mexico City street taco (or in my case 15-20 tacos), then I have great news for you.

Until the end of the day today, Aeromexico is offering 40% off of flights booked using points going to or from Mexico.

Before you ask, I'm gonna get out ahead of this - I realize that most of you don't have a stash of Aeromexico frequent flyer miles…

So why would you care about this deal?

Well, it just so happens that you can transfer points from American Express, Citi, or Capital One to Aeromexico! This means that on points earned with your everyday spending, you can book a flight to Mexico for nearly half off.

Let's do a quick walkthrough of an example.

American Express lets you transfer points to Aeromexico at a 1:1.6 ratio. That means that if you transfer 1,000 points, you'll receive 1,600 Aeromexico miles.

Now let's look at Aeromexico's award chart:

As you can see, a round-trip ticket in Economy from the US will cost as little as 56,000 miles. With a 40% discount that will only cost 33,600 miles.\

So, you would only need to transfer 21,000 American Express points to book this round-trip flight to Mexico, which is a HUGE steal.

Make sure you book by the end of the day today to take advantage of this offer.

¡Buena Suerte!

Today's question comes from Jonathan, who asked the following:

"After receiving a signup bonus, what do people like Kara and Nate do with credit cards that have an annual fee?"

This is a GREAT question. (good work, Jonathan)

First, Nate and I have published a massive travel hacking guide on the Daily Drop website, which includes a section specifically on this topic if you want to read about it more in-depth.

For now, I'll give you the Sparknotes version. But don't worry - unlike Sparknotes, nobody will get in trouble for using it 😉

When a credit card has a welcome bonus, it is almost always worth holding the card for the first year and paying the annual fee. For example, the American Express® Gold Card currently has a welcome offer of 75,000 Membership Rewards points and a $250 annual fee. The points alone are worth at least $1,200 of free travel, which easily justifies paying the $250.

But when the second year rolls around and you're faced with that fee again, what do you do? Keep the card? Cancel the card? Throw the card into a river and hope Amex forgets about you? (not recommended)

Here's where we get into the details of valuing card benefits. Every card comes with unique sets of benefits and perks, but let's continue using the Gold card for now.

Here are the most valuable perks of the Gold card outside of the welcome bonus:

• $120 of annual Uber credits ($10 per month)
• $120 of annual Dining credits ($10 per month)
• 4x points on U.S. grocery stores and dining

So let's say you spend $250 per month on groceries and dining (including food delivery). You would earn 12,000 points per year just from these purchases alone, worth about $180 of free travel. Since most people can pretty easily use $20 per month on Uber, UberEats, and dining (and *some people* spend much, MUCH more than that… 😬), I value the $240 of credits at face value.

Just from these few benefits, you're getting $420 of value every year without any signup bonus factored in. This doesn't even include all of the points you earn on every other purchase, insurance benefits, or Amex Offers. So in my mind, it will always make sense to hold this card.

This is the process I go through with all of my credit cards every year to determine whether I should keep or cancel them. I am a huge nerd, so I keep a detailed monthly spreadsheet where I track these on a monthly basis (and I even have FUN doing it 🤓). It's tedious, but I have a crystal clear picture of how much value I'm getting from my credit cards.