[gruez]

>Do you think you could find a reasonable, safe, clean place to live in the Berkely area for 560 / mo? A quick search says no.

But to get that low quoted amount, you need to ignore the value of the frequent flyer miles used, and the value of his time spent commuting. If you factor those in, the cost is about $17.8k for the fall semester alone, plenty of money to get a nice place to live.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35997647

[alex_lav]

Sorry I'm not understanding the point you're trying to make. This person handed over the 5500 in cash, not the 17.8k you quoted, correct? It's not like they had a budget of 17.8k, because they wouldn't have gotten those miles had they not been flying in the first place.

[deepzn]

The point is it wouldn't apply to most people without points. And the point they were trying to prove in the post is it was possible for others.

[alex_lav]

> And the point they were trying to prove in the post is it was possible for others.

Qualifying for sign up rewards is doable by almost anyone with decent credit. And if you didn't have the credit, you wouldn't be able to get the lease anyway.

[uoaei]

Did you also do the math for how long it takes to accrue that many points and how much money you need to spend to get access to them? I don't see any evidence that you considered those factors.

[TylerE]

And also ignore value of tim, and costs of travel to/from the airport.