For those who follow me on Facebook, you already know that my last trip didn’t exactly go as planned. My late night Virgin America flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas was cancelled, and it took me about 15 hours to get to my destination, via American Airlines. To keep the story short, I was eventually re-booked in AA first class, access to the Alaska lounge at LAX (highly recommended), 5,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles, and a $350.00 Virgin America travel bank. I am still working on this issue, and expect to receive additional compensation in the future.

Unfortunately, since neither Alaska or Virgin America operate out of Atlanta, I knew I would have to book a flight through another city. I closely follow The Points Guy, and on Friday, I read an article saying Virgin America flights would no longer be bookable which would make using my travel bank credit more difficult, so I knew I needed to act fast. I contacted Alaska Airlines on Facebook, and after a little back and forth, their team agreed to convert my Virgin travel bank credit into 14,000 MileagePlan miles. Combined with the 5,000 that I had received earlier, I now had 19,000 miles.

I knew I wanted to go back to New York after having an amazing time there for the Classic in July, where I made some lifelong friends in the city, and even some from across the world! I also knew that JFK is definitely serviced by Virgin America, and if I wanted to snag a seat in Upper Class before Alaska retrofits the one-of-a-kind Virgin fleet, I had to act soon. I looked at flights and I found the one I wanted: a one way from New York JFK to Las Vegas McCarran in Virgin America for 25,000 MileagePlan miles. If I wanted to pay cash, it would be $699, which I obviously didn’t want to pay. But I was short 6,000 MileagePlan miles.

Luckily, as part of the Virgin America -> Alaska merger, Alaska will let you exchange each of your Elevate miles into 1.3 MileagePlan miles. Luckily for me, even though I didn’t have any Elevate miles, I do have American Express Membership Rewards points from my Platinum card sign up bonus. So I converted 10,000 Membership Rewards points into 5,000 Elevate miles, costing me $6 (American Express charges a tax offset fee to convert points into domestic airlines miles). Once I converted them to MileagePlan miles instantly, I had just over what I needed. So with a quick redemption online, and another $5.60 (required 9/11 fee charged on all award travel in the US), I had turned a failed 1.5 hour flight into a transcontinental Virgin America first class experience for $11.60 and some points I already had.

I’ll call that a win.

It’s a simple enough question. And no, I don’t mean the pocket diploma ‘Ma Tech gave you after you graduated. I mean your credit cards. And if you don’t have any, for the love of all that is holy, you need one. I have 9. Credit cards are your friend. You have to use them responsibly, but there is almost no reason to pay for anything with a debit card. Ever. Unless there is an extra fee to use a credit card, you should only be using cash to help those in need or pay your tuition or your taxes.

If you use them responsibly and apply at the right time, you can receive thousands of dollars in bonuses for money you were already planning to spend. Why not take that trip to the Bahamas? Even better if your bank pays for it!

I’m going to keep this first post simple and tell you what cards are in my wallet, their annual fees, and the core of their rewards structures. I will go into more detail on each card that I still believe to be relevant and include a link for you to use to take advantage of a sign up bonus in later posts. As a note, I will be posting referral links, so both you and I will get something if you are approved. If my referral isn’t as good as an offer I can find without it, I’ll be sure to tell you and you can choose which to click.

So without further adieu, here’s my current inventory:

1. Chase Sapphire Reserve (My Favorite) [$450 AF, 3x Ultimate Rewards Points on All Travel and Restaurant Purchases, 1x Ultimate Rewards Points on All Purchases
2. Platinum Card for Schwab from American Express [$550 AF, 5x Membership Rewards Points on Airfare and Hotels (via Amex Travel), 1x Membership Rewards Point on All Purchases]
3. Chase Freedom [$0 AF, Rotating 5x Ultimate Rewards Points Categories, 1 Ultimate Rewards Point on All Purchases]
4. Chase Southwest Premier Rewards [$99 AF, 2x Rapid Rewards Points on Southwest Purchases, 1x Rapid Rewards Point on All Purchases
5. Delta SkyMiles Gold Card from American Express [$0 AF 1st Year, $95 AF After, 2x SkyMiles on Delta Purchases, 1x SkyMile on All Purchases]
6. Discover It Card [$0 AF, Rotating 5% Cash Back Categories, 1% on All Purchases]
7. Spirit Airlines World Mastercard [$0 AF 1st Year, $59 AF After, 2x Free Spirit Miles Per $ Spent]
8. BarclayCard CashForward Card [$0 AF, 1.5% Cash Back on All Purchases]
9. Blue Sky from American Express [$0 AF, Old Card, Not Recommended]

If you are shocked by the cards with the highest annual fees, don’t be! I will tell you how to get more than that out of each of those cards every year.

Thanks for reading!