If you couldn’t tell from reading our previous content, we love to travel. And we especially love travelling with our kids. While it is certainly more challenging than just taking a “Mom and Dad only” trip, the experiences we get to share with them make it so worthwhile.
Surprisingly, in all of our family travels, we have actually only taken one trip out of the country since having kids. We had taken a handful of international trips before having kids, especially while I was working for Delta Air Lines and we had the option of hopping on the standby list whenever we wanted.
Kimberly and I had each owned passports since we were kids, but during our time in Atlanta we learned about Global Entry. Basically, Global Entry is like an express lane through customs when you return from an international trip. Anyone who has ever flown internationally will tell you what a pain it is to wait in line at customs – it’s made even worse by the fact that you’re probably returning from an awesome trip, and reality is starting to set back in.
When you have Global Entry, you’re already pre-cleared via background checks and registration, so you just have to scan your passport at a kiosk, answer a few questions on the screen, and boom you’re all done. No waiting in line at all. After we went through the process and finally got a chance to use it, we knew after the first time that we’d never be going back. Once you’re approved, your membership lasts for 5 years. And at $100, it’s worth every penny – even if you only travel out of the country every now and then.
When we moved to New Orleans shortly before Hunter was born, I had to get a new job outside of Delta, so no more unlimited standby flights. But I still had a pair of round-trip ticket vouchers that I was awarded during my employment there, and they were valid to travel anywhere that Delta serviced. The only caveat was that I had to use them within one year after leaving the company.
We were planning on using them to go to Hawaii but with connections and major time differences, we decided that wouldn’t be best with a 9 month old. We weren’t worried about a passport for Hunter the whole time we were planning since Hawaii is not an international destination.
Ultimately, we chose to go to Costa Rica because it wasn’t a super-long flight but it was still exotic enough to justify using our once-only free tickets. Kimberly found a very nice resort up on the northwestern coast, which wasn’t too far of a ride from the airport.
We knew it wouldn’t be a typical “getaway” having a 9-month-old with us, but it actually turned out to be a great time! At the time, being newer parents, we considered it a bit more challenging than usual having a baby with us – but looking back at it now, having just one to deal with seems like a walk in the park!
But after getting back to the states, we had what you might call a “learning opportunity.” We had made a huge effort to make sure Hunter got a passport in time for our trip (rushed fee and all), but we didn’t get him a Global Entry membership. And we couldn’t take advantage of our membership perks since he didn’t have it (yup, doesn’t matter that he was still an infant). So we had to wait in the normal customs line in Atlanta, which ended up taking us well over 2 hours to get through.
Maybe somewhere an hour or so into the line, Kimberly looked at me point blank and said “Make an appointment Monday for him to get his Global Entry.” Even though we had no foreseeable international trips in our future, the damage was done. From that point on, we decided that all of our kids were going to get Global Entry as soon as they possibly could. It wasn’t too long after that we had completed Hunter’s application. A few months after Gage was born, we got him his passport; once he had that, we immediately started the Global Entry process.
Beckett has been the one exception. He was born at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, so we knew we definitely wouldn’t be going out of the country any time soon (unfortunately). Passports and Global Entry, among many other federal services, are extremely delayed right now. We are actually about to go ahead and start the process for him so that a surprise trip doesn’t sneak up on us and we have a repeat of 2017!
