About Melissa
Mom of two small children, 45 countries and counting, and the one writing everything here. This is the longer version — how we got from a semester abroad to taking two small children across the world, and how we pay for it.
My love affair with travel started in college, with a few weeks studying abroad in Spain that turned into a full semester in Hong Kong. That experience changed everything, and I have not stopped exploring the world since.
45 countries later (and counting), that hasn't changed. What has changed is who I'm doing it with. My husband and I actually started our travel account as “This Dinky Life” — DINKY as in Dual Income, No Kids Yet — back when it was just the two of us jetting off wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted. But once we had kids, that name stopped fitting pretty quickly. Family Points Passport was born out of that shift: I wanted to help other families travel more, and to actually show people how we afford it, rather than just posting pretty photos from far-flung places.
I've been playing the points and miles game for 18 years, which means I've made most of the mistakes so you don't have to. When I'm not actually traveling, I'm usually planning the next several trips (or, let's be honest, just thinking about them while I should be doing something else).
Behind the camera is my husband, Alan — the videographer behind all of our YouTube videos, and the reason our trips actually get documented in a way that doesn't look like shaky iPhone footage. I'm the one behind the Instagram account, so if you're following along there, you're hearing it straight from me.
Family Points Passport is where I share it all — real trip recaps, how I actually booked flights, hotels, and cars, and the family-friendly details that usually don't make it into the typical travel blog.
