Up in the Air Family Review

Ryan Bingham enjoys living out of a suitcase for his job, travelling around the country firing people, but finds that lifestyle threatened by the presence of a potential love interest, and a new hire presenting a new business model.Ryan Bingham is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles, and just after he's met the frequent-traveller woman of his dreams.Ryan Bingham flies around the country firing people. He's good at his job and is constantly in the air flying from one city to another. He's also an accumulator of frequent flyer miles and has a goal: he wants to get to ten million miles. His routine is interrupted by the arrival of Natalie Keener, who thinks the travel is unnecessary and the firings can be done through videoconferencing. Ryan's boss loves the idea, but wants Ryan to take Natalie on the road with him to show her how he does it. It proves to be a life lesson for Natalie after one of her counseling sessions goes wrong. Ryan also learns that some of the choices he's made have not always been the correct one.—garykmcdRyan Bingham's job is to fire people from theirs. The anguish, hostility, and despair of his "clients" has left him falsely compassionate, living out of a suitcase, and loving every second of it. When his boss hires arrogant young Natalie, she develops a method of video conferencing that will allow termination without ever leaving the office, essentially threatening the existence Ryan so cherishes. Determined to show the naive girl the error of her logic, Ryan takes her on one of his cross country firing expeditions, but as she starts to realize the disheartening realities of her profession, he begins to see the downfalls to his way of life.—The Massie TwinsRyan Bingham works for Omaha-based Career Transition Counseling, whose contracts are in corporate downsizing. In other words, they fire people. Ryan is flying around the U.S. over three hundred twenty days of the year, which he feels is the best part of his job. He does whatever he can to rack up frequent flyer miles, the goal not to use them, but just to accumulate them to a specific number he has in his mind. A secondary job he has is to give motivational speeches on relieving one's life of excess physical and emotional baggage. He truly does believe what he espouses as he lives out of his carry-on suitcase (his apartment in Omaha is really in name only), he is not close to his siblings (although he does do a favor for his sister while on his travels), nor does he have or want a significant person in his life. Ryan's life may change when the company hires Natalie Keener, a young overachieving woman who recommends that the company change the nature of the work by conducting the "firings" via remote computer access. Ryan believes that Natalie does not fully understand the nature of the business, and as such, their boss, Craig Gregory, suggests that she accompany Ryan on a business trip. Ryan is also trying to protect his way of life, which now includes meeting up with a woman named Alex Goran whenever their flight schedules mesh. Like Ryan, Alex, who he met in an airport hotel bar, is constantly travelling for work, and is as equally turned on the by the concepts of "elite status" or "preferred member" as Ryan is.—Huggo