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I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

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Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#81

Post by atdrummond »

megablast wrote: post #77
atdrummond wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this time (late 2000s, early 2010s) you could purchase open jaw fares (say ORD-NRT-CGK/CGK-NRT-STL) and between the open jaw/double open jaw and sometimes a fuel dump, get an economy ticket for less than $400. I would generate typically 40k-50k+ miles at a time, meaning I was getting essentially a free economy round trip between US and Europe for every flight. So basically I was pocketing a minimum of a few hundre…

> and visiting quite a few SE Asian locations, even if it was 8/10/14 hours Visiting the airport.

Nope. If you’re doing this regularly you get to know the hacks to get through customs/security/etc quickly. I would always knock off at least two of the following on every trip: museums, restaurants, parks, architectural sites.

Plus I had enough miles and a flexible enough schedule that if I did miss a flight, I’d just book a reward flight home a few days later and make a proper trip out of it.

Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#82

Post by limitedfrom »

aripickar wrote: post #62

For full context, this is someone with a wife and two kids[1] who had a couple of semesters and just needed a temporary solution, not a 20 year old kid. Different then the title might suggest. [1] https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/05/15/uc-berkeley-la-plane...

Doesn't seem so. The article talks about a person getting a sociology degree, while the Reddit post talks about someone working on an MEng degree. Given the poster's extensive posts on Flyertalk and his comments saying that there are two of them[1], I think there actually might be two different folks doing this.

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...

Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#83

Post by inferiorhuman »

ehnto wrote: post #70
asdff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the entire point of the high speed rail. It unlocks new labor markets. Now workers can live maybe not in LA and commute to berkeley, but further in the central valley and go either way. Cities like Fresno or Merced could see booms as these areas take on the housing demand brought on by labor.

Brightline Rail Company gets it. They are predominantly a real estate play, buying up land surrounding their "higher" speed rail services. They have a Cali project currently though it is to connect to Las Vegas. 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.

Brightline rail has the worst safety record in the country. They're too cheap to even put up fencing around their track. The only thing Brightline gets is sacrificing a few lives to make a buck.

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/29/799962246/brightline-nations-...

Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#84

Post by tpmx »

fuzzythinker wrote: post #52

Alternatively, drive to Bakersfield and take the Amtrack to there/Oakland. It's a much more eco-friendly and enjoyable ride. They sell 10-packs and monthly passes too. https://www.amtrak.com/stations/bfd

That's a ~9 hour trip including the drive and 30 minutes safety margin.

Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#85

Post by WalterBright »

snapetom wrote: post #64
tempestn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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/Amaz…

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

Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#86

Post by zamnos »

jnsaff2 wrote: post #67
bhl wrote: post #17

My takeaway from reading about the person's experience is that we need better high speed public transportation in California. It would unlock a lot of economic and non-economic opportunities if people can move across the state within an hour. Imagine if Berkeley was a commuter school for people in Los Angeles, or UCLA was a commuter school for people in Bay Area.

Here is an interesting take on California HSR. 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...

Thanks for linking that read! I didn't walk away with that tldr. Mine was that airplanes are better because adding airports is way easier than adding train stations, and that HSR is hard (as in, not just a California thing).

Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#87

Post by labster »

zamnos wrote: post #78
ericmcer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A high speed rail enabling people to commute to SF/LA from 100+ miles away in under an hour would immediately relieve a huge amount of housing issues while creating tons of jobs in low income areas. The whole central valley would become a valid place for people to commute from. Too bad we are incapable of building one.

https://buildhsr.com/ is tracking the progress (ie, we are capable, if slow). First up, Bakersfield to Fresno.

What a stupid section to start on. They should have done LA-Anaheim-San Diego or SF-San José or Sac-Stockton and started making money on shorter routes. Instead, they’re building a longer stretch between less populated and less wealthy cities.

Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#88

Post by freetime2 »

usui wrote: post #49
tbrake wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.

Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#89

Post by ynniv »

tbrake wrote: post #39
akiselev wrote: post #28

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…

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.

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.

Re: I lived in LA and commuted to Berkeley by plane to save on rent

#90

Post by dotancohen »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #40
akiselev wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

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.

  > scrap your flight
Scrub the flight )) It's the Piper that is scraped ))
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