Pay taxes, fly for free

Good morning from beautiful and relaxing Da Nang, Vietnam! We’ve got a VERY fun topic to discuss today, so let’s get straight to the point(s):

• 💳 How to earn a free trip from paying your taxes

• 🏨 A Daily Drop reader is giving away their Hyatt awards

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

💳 How to earn a free trip from paying your taxes

Well, people - 2024 has come and gone, as years tend to do. The new year is always a time full of whimsy, hope, and joy.

That is… until you get your fat tax bill and have to shell out your hard-earned dollar bills to the government. BOOOOO. 👎

That’s right, folks - It’s time to pay the piper.

But fear not - I’ve got some tips today that might eliminate some of the dread around the subject of paying taxes.

As someone who has owned a business and done lots of freelance self-employment work, I know the pain of having to pay big quarterly or annual tax bills, even when you plan for it accordingly.

What you may not know, however, is that there are ways to profit massively from your tax payment and even turn it into a luxurious business-class flight... 😮

Allow me to explain:

You may be aware that you can pay taxes using a credit card, usually with a pretty sub-optimal fee attached.

For example, the IRS website gives you multiple options for different payment processors, along with the various rates they each charge for different payment methods.

All of them will charge you just 1.75-1.85% in fees to pay with a credit card. For the sake of this example, let's conservatively call it 2%.

Let's say you rack up a $10,000 tax bill. This is not unreasonable for freelancers, small business owners, and others with supplemental income.

The 2% fee would mean you would have to pay an additional $200 just to use a credit card.

In most cases, paying more money to earn more points is rarely worthwhile. But in the following two scenarios, it can be very worthwhile.

Scenario 1: Earning a welcome offer 

You might be reluctant to sign up for expensive credit cards even when they have huge welcome offers due to the minimum required spending.

For example, this card has a big-boy welcome offer and tons of great perks but requires you to spend $8,000 to get the bonus.

But if you have a $10,000 tax bill, you'd eliminate that spending requirement in one swoop. Is not having to worry about reaching the bonus over a 6-month period worth the $200 processing fee?

For some people, it just might be. 😏

If you want to take this to the next level, you could open the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card AND this other (equally awesome) card.

Since they each require you to spend $4,000, you'd earn both welcome offers and get nearly 150,000 points (including points from your spend)… 🤯

That’s enough to book an entire trip somewhere!

Is a free trip abroad without stressing or waiting to earn points worth $200? For most of you, I'd guess the answer is yes.

Scenario 2: Normal points earning 

Let's say you already have a credit card open, have already earned the welcome offer, and are really skeptical about shelling out $200 on fees just to earn some points from your taxes.

There are still ways for this to be worthwhile, believe it or not.

For example, if you own our highest-rated travel card or its younger sibling, you earn a minimum of 2 miles per dollar on every single purchase.

That means your $10,200 purchase would earn you 20,400 miles on either of those cards.

If you then transfer those miles to Flying Blue, you could book an entire flight to Europe worth twice the fee you paid just for paying your taxes... it doesn’t get much better than that, my friends.

In this scenario, you're paying $200 because you know the points you earn can get you flights or hotels worth WAY more than that price.

That doesn't mean that $200 is free or that you aren't spending it. Rather, you're investing in something far more valuable.

So here’s the bottom line:

Now that 2024 has ended, it's important to start strategizing about maximizing your tax payments when the time comes.

Who knew paying your taxes could be so fun, eh?

🏨 A Daily Drop reader is giving away their Hyatt awards

Yep, you read that headline right. But let me give you some context…

A couple of weeks ago, I gave away a flight using some of my million SAS miles to a Daily Drop reader. The lucky winner ended up being Niraj from San Antonio.

And after chatting a bit, Niraj told me that he has a bunch of Hyatt awards that are expiring at the end of this month, and has GENEROUSLY offered to give them away!

Specifically, here is what’s on offer:

• 4 Hyatt Club Access Awards

• 5 Hyatt Guest of Honor Awards

In case you don’t know, these awards are earned by unlocking Hyatt’s milestone benefits and can be freely transferred and gifted to other Hyatt members:

If you use a Guest of Honor Award during your stay, you’ll get all kinds of epic perks, such as:

• Free breakfast

• Late checkout

• Lounge access

• Bonus points on paid stays

In other words, you’ll be elite for your whole stay!

And you might even meet a celebrity chef, which is what happened to a Daily Drop reader who won one of my Hyatt Guest of Honor Awards last year. 😏

Anyway, if you use a Club Access Award, you’ll have access to… well… the club.

Clubs are usually only at more luxury brands like Hyatt Regency, Alila, Grand Hyatt, etc.

Club Access usually means free breakfast, afternoon tea, evening snacks and drinks, and a nice quiet place to work if that’s your thing.

Anyway, fill out the poll below and tell me if you want to win one of these awards.

As a reminder, these expire at the end of this month, so only fill out the form if you have a Hyatt stay THIS MONTH (or you would book/change to Hyatt by the end of the month if you win).

And, I just want to say - THANK YOU, NIRAJ, for being such a generous person!!!

I think it’s really cool that you offered to do this, and I know some lucky readers will feel the same.

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

The correct answer is… Guam International Airport!

If you thought your last flight was pricey, imagine paying an average of $1,658.81 for a round-trip ticket.

Nope. 🙂

That’s the reality for people flying to Guam, making it the most expensive airport in the U.S. to fly to.

Why so expensive, you ask? Well, for those of you who don’t know, Guam is a remote U.S. territory in the Pacific, meaning flights are long, competition is limited, and fuel costs are suuuper high.

And if you thought Alaska flights were brutal, Unalaska, Adak Island, and Cold Bay also make the list with average fares soaring past $1,000.

On the flip side, Branson, Missouri, takes the crown for the cheapest airport, with an average fare of just $90.76. Ok, Branson! 👏 

That’s less than what some airlines charge for a checked bag…

I’m curious… Would you ever book a flight just to experience the most expensive airport in the U.S.?

Read more about the cheapest (and priciest) airports in this article.

That’s all for today, my beautiful friends!

I hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter, and I look forward to seeing you bright and early tomorrow for more points and miles fun times.

Cheers,

16.0544° N, 108.2022° E