Cash or Points
 

Hey FTers,

We plan on going to the Canton Fair in China and I have been looking at my choices. Now here is my question we have been accumulating a lot of points and ever since discovering this forum learned a lot about how to travel in business/first class with for personal vacations and etc.. Normally i just fly economy in domestic business flights and pay with cc but first time going international and didnt really want to sit in economy for 20+ hours goijg to china

Now i was just about to book 2 business class tickets for 95k points and $300 in fees each but then it occurrd to me that this a tax dectubile trip. Normal business tickets cost 2.5 to 3.5k,each depending on the airline.

When flying business international do you guys think its better to just pay cash earn the 3x points and award miles and deduct from taxes or just use my points which i could use personally later on. And I was thinking the same thing in terms of,hotels.

None of the blogs seem to ever talk about factoring in tax deduction savings so i was wondering what your personal experiences on this issue was.

Thanks

This is a very individual questions.

Deduction for business or for person operating as a business or individual/couple deducting for a legitimate purpose?

Will the deduction be actually advantageous to you? This will depend on the tax structure (company deduction vs other deduction) and the income.

Not to be obtuse, but is this not a question for your accountant?

Just figure the tax savings into the cost of the ticket. Then decide if you'd rather use points to save that much.

For example, suppose the ticket costs $3,000 and you're in the 30% tax bracket. The real cost of the ticket to you, if you buy it, would be $2,100. Then make the decision exactly as you would for a non-deductible $2,100 ticket.