From Two to Five: Taking Travel to New Heights With Family

I guess this serves as a “Hello, World”, of sorts. It’s not that I really need to say “hello” to BoardingArea, as I’m here reading generally every day, but I wanted to offer a quick introduction.

The Backstory

My name is Ian. I’ve been an avid traveler for most of my adult life. My entry into award travel all started with planning a honeymoon and went up from there, at a couple thousand feet per minute. I attacked this hobby with gusto, easily able to navigate the details of credit card bonuses, hotel loyalty programs, and flight award charts and routing rules. It has been and still is a incredibly fun adventure, and I find it amazing to have been able to see so much for so little.

I started blogging along the way, eventually being brought on as a contributor to Points with a Crew, Dan Miller’s family travel blog here on BoardingArea. Which is sort of funny, considering that I my wife and I didn’t have kids. But how quickly things change.

In 2017 my wife and I enjoyed the culmination of literally years of planning and waiting when we completed the adoption of our three kids. We went from a couple to a family of five, literally overnight. While parenting is surely the greatest adventure, it’s also been a joy to have new adventures across the country and globe with my kids as well.

The New Step

Now I’m excited to be launching here on Travel Update as Family Fly Free. Travel Update is a great fit, as the channel doesn’t typically offer a whole lot from a family perspective. You’ll still hear my opinions on industry news, ideas on how to best optimize your points and miles usage, and likely catch some complaints about flying regionally out of our very rural corner of California. However, a core thread of family travel will be woven through it all.

Travel with kids is fun. Sure, it is also exhausting and stressful at times, especially when plans go awry or you’re trying to figure out what to do with two severely jet-lagged kids mid-afternoon in Paris. But it is also rewarding and definitely a joy.

Happy travels! I hope you’ll be back to hear of our adventures, and how we’re able to experience amazing travel on a very un-amazing budget, thanks to this hobby.