[akiselev]

Key quotes:

> I was living in LA, rent free.

> I love flying and I have a lot of frequent flyer miles/points from credit card sign up bonus/flying over the past few years.

> I booked all my tickets for Fall 2022 back in April and May 2022. Then I booked all my tickets for Spring 2023 back in Nov 2022. Most tickets were booked using Alaska miles or Southwest points

> I have elite status with Alaska and Southwest, both offer a valuable perk called same-day change. I always book the cheapest flight of that day and call them when the check-in window opened to change to other flights of that day free of charge.

> Spent 45972 minutes on my commute, equivalent to 31.93 24-hr days.

So basically, if you're rich and have already spent several times the cost of rent on travel in your gap year(s), willing to spend over 20 hours a week commuting for 3 days of class, and have literally no concept of the value of your time, you too can afford the miserable commute from LA to Berkeley for university!

[tbrake]

What's with the indignation over this on HN? I didn't see them suggesting anyone/everyone would be able to do it, or that it was practical.

It was just a funny set of cirucmstances that allowed for an attention catching headline and a mildly amusing tale. Yeeeesh.

[atleastoptimal]

I think some people on here default to a highly comparative/competitive mindset. When they see titles like the one here, they assume there's a subline reading And because I found this hack and executed on it, I'm more resourceful, capable, and smarter than you, and if you can't keep up with me its your fault if you don't succeed

Not saying everyone here thinks it but the emotional reaction to these kinds of things makes it seem this is how it feels to some people.

[prepend]

I agree with part of your assumption, but, for me, the second half is more “and here’s how I can learn from it, internalize, and improve my processes to be better.”

So it’s not so much competitive to exceed others but competitive to improve methods to improve self.

[CactusOnFire]

Yeah. The title is a misdirect. The unspoken promise of the article that this is about a more cost-effective/practical/efficient process of commuting.

[akiselev]

I guess predictable HN click bait leads to predictable HN criticism leads to predictable HN meta-comment leads to predictable HN meta-rebuttal.

It's the circle of life :-)

[ynniv]

It's a cool story, but the headline is bullshit since they didn't include the value of 576k frequent flier miles. That more than doubles the cost.

[j7ake]

While you’re at it, why don’t you throw in the real cost of living “rent free”, which is a huge reason why it works.

[sfmike]

agreed the true hacker spirit is to sometimes do something completely overzealous and over the top just in the spirit of what if or I can. This person was essentially load balancing their life to play with time and finance variables a true hacker spirit.

[usui]

Exactly, what's with the critical and defensive reactionary response here? This story is hilarious! And the amount of effort it took to execute and maintain it. And to keep full track of commute time and expenses on a spreadsheet no less? Bravo.

[freetime2]

It's a "critical" response for sure, but "defensive"? What makes it defensive (or "emotional" or "indignant", as others have characterized the response)?

I enjoyed the article, and I applaud the author for comitting to the bit. But on the other hand, I completely agree with the parent: the headline is somewhat misleading, and it's an absurdly impractical way to commute to school. Sure it might do the parent some good to lighten up a bit, but it's completely understandable that a person would have this reaction when reading the article. And for me, reading peoples' 100%-justifiably-negative reactions only ehances the absurdity and comedy of it all.

[uoaei]

It's also a grand waste of resources, not to mention quite a tasteless flaunt of the enjoyment of a level of privilege that very few have access to.

If you saw an article about how Bezos bragged openly on the internet about how much he spent a day on gourmet food flown in on private jets from faraway countries, do you think you'd respond any differently? Why or why not?

[khazhoux]

Yes, the elite, priviledged lifestyle of waking up at 3:30 three days a week, to spend 8-10 hours on a plane and public transport, because you can’t afford housing on campus.

Just rich kid things!

[uoaei]

Clearly they could have afforded housing on campus if they just saved all the money they had spent on that credit card.

The luxury of affording your credit card bill every month as a college student, and living a lush life on all the things that money affords, then attending a prestigious school with a near guarantee of stable high income in perpetuity, is not a chance many get. By definition, privilege is the enjoyment of things that many others cannot enjoy.

Do you have a point to make or is this just a kneejerk reaction from a "temporarily embarrassed millionaire"?

[khazhoux]

> Do you have a point to make

Yes. It's ridiculous to accuse somehow who put themselves through this insane, sleep-depriving, patience-punishing, tarmac-sitting schedule, of flaunting their privilege. He has more money than many, but (evidently) not enough to live in the same city as his classmates.

Just enjoy a crazy-hilarious story, man.

[refurb]

What do you mean "very few have". They are a Berkeley student, that's 45,000 students who can afford to live in Berkeley which is more expensive than what this guy did.

Seems the opposite of "privilege few have".

Get off your high horse.

[uoaei]

You are aware, of course, that the human population is larger than 90k people, right?

[refurb]

You are aware that Berkeley isn’t the only college in the US right?

Saying a 20-something college student is among the “very few” is just silly.

[prepend]

It’s just not very remarkable. The same day change part is clever but otherwise was just “here’s how I spent a bunch of money” and not very interesting or useful to me.

So as equally amusing as “my parents paid for my gap years where I visited many cool locations using routine and typical methods.”

[tempestn]

I guess it's not necessarily a poor use of time if you can study in the airport and/or on the plane. Or if you just enjoy flying.

[snapetom]

I'm getting close to a similar situation.

I live in Washington and negotiating with my employer about doing a weekend MBA program in Texas. Most, if not all, tuition is covered, I'm staying with family there. However, it's not nothing money-wise. I'm my own with flights.

What I see as a pro, though, is that I'm highly productive on planes and airport lounges. At home, I'm distracted by spouse, pets, Netflix/Hulu/Amazon, etc. I've always been able to focus much more while traveling. I'm confident I can do most of the work for the program in the air, plus I get to hang out with extended family once a week.

[WalterBright]

I've tried many times to work on flights, and failed miserably every time.

[tsuujin]

I genuinely can not imagine enjoying flying. Airports are a form of living hell.

[vidarh]

For a year and a half I was doing LHR<->SFO every 6 weeks or so. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it much, but it soon became a weird sport to optimize everything. I got it down to ~16 hours door to door, by e.g. ensuring I never needed to check anything in and trying out several options on either end of the flight. I maximised my upgrades by carefully picking flights, and so rapidly got up the tiers of the reward program (I was flying United, because while their standard was low compared to e.g. BA or Virgin, their reward program was far more generous, so if flying often it was a better experience back then). I found great headphones, sleeping masks, pillows. At that point it was close to enjoyable.

But that was with transatlantic flights. Having experienced domestic US flights, I can't imagine doing that regularly. Difference even within the same carriers at least used to be awful. To the point where I'd insist on direct flights over stretching my legs on the east coast because the domestic flights were so awful.

[kennethrc]

I used to commute (weekly) SoCal/NoCal for a while and still fly quite often. Between airline status and perks like PreCheck and CLEAR and lounge access (all of which one of my CCs gives me for "free") flying is a lot less hassle than it used to be; I can usually show up at the airport only 5 mins before either bag cutoff, or boarding start nowadays, with the biggest hassle usually getting to/from the airport(s).

[akiselev]

The LAX-SFO flight averages to around an hour and a half one way. It sounds like he really liked commuting to and from the airport more than flying.

He would have been better off with a PPL and a Piper that takes off from the nearest small airport. It would have cost a little more but the bulk of it would have amortized better over the course of a four year degree (frequent flyer miles and elite status vs life time of PPL and resale value of the plane)

[Karrot_Kream]

Well you're still at the mercy of weather and airspace restrictions in your Piper. Flying IFR helps, but there's going to be days you'll need to scrap your flight because of winds or days you'll have to fly in pattern for a while waiting for clearance to land, potentially making you late for class.

[dotancohen]

  > scrap your flight

Scrub the flight )) It's the Piper that is scraped ))

[alwayslikethis]

Small planes like that burn a lot of gas though which isn't cheap. You also can't nap while flying your own plane.

[manarth]

> it would have amortized better over the course of a four year degree

"I got accepted into a one-year MEng program (technically 10 months)"

[itronitron]

Reminds me of hearing one of my classmates in college complain about how their boyfriend (at the same college, but a junior or senior) was having to fly back to Hong Kong every weekend to help run the family business. I can only hope that they were able to spend those hours sleeping or studying.

[ulfw]

Oh yea those TSA lines and cramped boarding gates and the endless cramped narrowbody planes that take forever to board and deboard. Doing the same route over and over and over again. Must be joyful!

[tempestn]

Didn't say I would enjoy it, but I'm sure there are some out there who would. I can more easily imagine it being productive though.

[coding123]

meh - it's not the destination, it's the journey.

Why is doing all the stuff any different than getting in your car and doing stuff. Just because it's different stuff than what you do during your day doesn't mean it's not an enjoyable life.