> 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!
It was just a funny set of cirucmstances that allowed for an attention catching headline and a mildly amusing tale. Yeeeesh.
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.
It's the circle of life :-)
So as equally amusing as “my parents paid for my gap years where I visited many cool locations using routine and typical methods.”
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.
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)
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.
You voted for California rail but nothing high speed was ever proposed.
The proposed rail line you are referring to was a normal speed train and didn’t even complete the SF to LA trip in two hours.
Which is to say: we would have achieved, in 2030, what most of the world achieved in 1990.
Buy the land, build the rail connector and enjoy the boost in land value you created.
It feels like everyone wants rail, benefits from rail and advocates for rail, but no rail gets done.
Too bad we are incapable of building one.
TL;DR the physics is really hard and California might not be the best place for it.
https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2022/10/11/why-high-speed...
For 10 months. Even if true story, only make sense if you can find rent $559 cheaper in LA (and don't value your time & the environment of course). It was extra special for the OP as he'd live rent free in LA.
> Typically, the door-to-door commute time between my home in LA and my classroom in Berkeley is 4-5hrs EACH WAY
Waking up at 3:30am and wasting 9h every day doesn't seem worth the $ savings. I feel a part time on-campus job or something would be less draining, more rewarding, and financially same...
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/2093205-epic-co...
Otoh, they have missed out on the chance to build connections with their classmates, which is one of the main benefits of even a year at a good school.
[1] https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/05/15/uc-berkeley-la-plane...
edit: Found an older post where the poster says they're doing an MEng Civil Engineering program[2]
[1] https://old.reddit.com/user/greateranglia [2] https://old.reddit.com/r/berkeley/comments/urcxua/is_it_poss...
LOL I read a good amount of r/berkeley but this plane-commute story has to be one of the funniest posts I've ever read.
So humbled to share space, living and interacting with the absolute most-fucking-insane students ever. I wish I could have that dedication for anything, as insane as it sounds. Wow. Inspirational.
This is highly misleading since it doesn't include $ value of all the freq flyer miles used (as far as i can tell).
And I'm left wondering was it really cheaper? If yes, by how much?
Yep. Here are the amounts with the value of the miles factored in[1]:
>$1366.06 on Alaska, 307500 Alaska miles
307500 Alaska miles * 1.2 cents/mile = $3690
>$380.86 on Southwest, 43732 Southwest points
43732 Southwest points * 1.5 cents/point = $655.98
>$42.80 on United, 5500 United miles
5500 United miles * 1.2 cents/mile = $66
>$15.60 on Avianca, 6500 Avianca miles
6500 Avianca miles * 1.2 cents/mile = $78
So for the fall semester it costed him $1805.32 in cash, but if you factor in the value of the points that rises to $6295.30. He also mentioned that he spent 45972 minutes on commuting. If you factor the value of time (eg. minimum wage), the "cost" rises further to $17,788.30.
[1] obtained from googling "[points program] value"
Firstly, unlike $ they can expire. So it's not like you can save them forever. I recently had 15 000 miles expire, simply because there was nothing I wanted, or needed, that I could spend them on.
Secondly they're not universal. To follow the article, i can't spend them on rent. So they really only have a value if I can trade them for something I would/could have spent $ on. So sure, upgrades are nice, but not like essential.
It's the same with time. You can be time-rich or time-poor. You can be cash-rich or cash-poor. Typically your priorities will be to reduce poorness. Rich people spend cash to get more time. Cash-poor people spend time to get more cash.
Miles-rich follows the same argument.
So it's not so easy to put a $ price on miles or time. Clearly the equation will vary from one person to another.
Incidentally given the choice of commuting or working minimum wage, I'll choose commuting all day long. Especially if that commuting is eyes-free, so I can use that time in a productive or entertaining way.
> I was living in LA, rent free.
But also, FTA:
> August 2022-May 2023
So 10 months. At the quoted amount of 5592, that's 559 dollars a month. 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.
BART would usually be faster
There’s also the old canard about how environmentalism demands maximally convenient driving and parking because congestion and hunting for spaces causes cars to run longer.
There really is a shift in mentality from thinking about what you see out your front door to thinking about the whole thing as a global system, and not everyone is capable of connecting the dots.
From the article:
Twice a week, Parnell rises before 5 a.m. in Whittier, about 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. He takes a quick shower, hops in his car and drives 35 minutes to the Long Beach airport. He breezes through TSA precheck and, with coveted “A group” boarding status, claims a seat near the front of the morning Southwest Airlines flight bound for Oakland.
Parnell knocks out some course readings on the 45-minute flight before dashing off the plane and subjecting himself to the mercy of BART. If all goes according to plan, he steps onto the UC Berkeley campus just in time for his 10 a.m. discussion section on the future of nuclear energy.
“It’s a sprint,” Parnell said. “I use every minute.”
When — if — things are on time, he gets back home to his wife and two children around 10 p.m.
Some entrepreneur had worked out a lease for living space, in the commercial heart of a large urban city....living in what during daytime is *literally* some VC office. He would come in at 8pm+ when the VC staff had left, and leave in the AM to work. And he paid a ridiculous low amount of rent to have what was effectively a 25K lease at market price.
Not sure what exactly was the motivation for the VC to agree to this (imagine having a bed in your office?) but , wondering if there is an underground network for this that im not aware of?
That's just an Entrepreneur-"in-Residence".
But the VC might have a free nighttime security guard, and coffee machine warmed up for breakfast time.
Makes sense if you have lots if FF miles and free rent somewhere else.
Can't say I have the stomach for such a grueling travel schedule and I have done my share of frequent travels, including intercontinental long-hauls.
Nevertheless, it solved a problem for the writer and made for interesting reading.
