In this episode, I interview a long-time friend, who was hesitant to open up credit cards for fear of ruining his credit and overspending. Tune-in to hear how he overcame that fear and is now booking his first international business class flights! These aren't the typical domestic carriers a newer Award Traveler might book either (American, Delta, or United). The Award Travel 101 Podcast is brought to you in part by Thrifty Traveler Premium. Get Thrifty Traveler Premium deal/award alerts sent straight to your inbox. Use promo code “AT10” for $10 off your first year. Recent finds include: Round-trip Business class to Faroe Islands for under $1,100Business class to S.E. Asia for 50,000 milesPuerto Vallarta & Cabo San Lucas, Mexico under $294You can find these at ThriftyTraveler.com/Premium Award Travel 101 Podcast Episode 60 Show Notes POINT.ME  DISCOUNT OFFER If you didn't catch our LIVE interview Thursday evening (3/14/2024) with co-founder, Tiffany Funk, she's offered the Award Travel 101 community 50% off annual subscriptions of point.me for a limited time. Full Details: Code: AWARDTRAVEL101Offer: 50% off a yearly standard subscription (not redeemable for monthly)Expires: 3/31/24 at 11:59pm ESTThere are so many new tools you can use to search for award space, but the one that provides the most robust options is point.me, and it's one of the two tools I rely on to assist in my daily searches. So if you want to try point.me and SAVE 50% on your next year of Award Searches, use the code listed above.  Highlight Feature: Booking Your First International Business Class Flight Welcome to Episode 60 of the AT101 Podcast! My co-host, Angie Sparks is off, AND I was traveling to Australia for the most crazy journey I've done to this point, but I thought I’d introduce Tod this week, so we recorded this episode ahead of my travels. Tod is a longtime friend, but he hasn’t always been as excited about award travel as many of us have been. He’s the perfect example of someone who didn’t believe in the power of credit card rewards, yet has come to embrace them as a tool to do more with less. In our highlight feature, we’ll discuss his growth and how he’s managed to book his first international (overseas) trip to Manilla, Philippines (in business class) and how he’s booking airlines that he would never have expected to be flying just a few short months ago (like Qatar’s QSuites or EVA lie-flat business class) - all from credit card reward programs and a willingness to branch out.  Tip of the week Stacking rewards programs can be useful - like getting Grocery store/fuel rewards in addition to your cards that earn category bonuses. Where To Find the Award Travel 101 Community For questions, you can join us in the free 100,000+ member Award Travel 101 Community. For more intermediate and advanced strategies, join Award Travel 201 community To book time with our team, check out Award Travel 1-on-1. You can also email us at [email protected]. Our next meetup is located in San Antonio, TX on April 26–28, 2024, and we’ve opened up a few more tickets for members! To learn more visit Taco 'Bout A Fiesta! on Eventbrite Support the AT101 Podcast/Community