“Super commuters” usually work or study in the major metropolitan areas, but sometimes live thousands of kilometers away. To get to work or university, they then often use the plane – an unusual way of commuting, which in some cases, however, pays off (at least financially).
One of these super commuters is Bill: The student lives in Los Angeles and studied for a year at the University of California at Berkeley, near San Francisco. Although both places are in the same US state, they are more than 600 kilometers apart. But despite the great distance, Bill has not rented a room or apartment at his place of study. Instead, he flew from L.A. to San Francisco three times a week, he told TV network KTLA. “That was the craziest thing I’ve ever done,” said the American.
Moving near his university just wasn’t worth it for him, he explains: “I knew I would move back to Los Angeles after I graduated because my previous employer would hire me again as soon as I finished my studies. ” Passionate about flying, Bill said he had accumulated a large amount of bonus miles over the years. He used it for his commute to the university. It was cheaper than looking for an apartment in the expensive area – and he says his study program only lasted ten months anyway.
And so he got up at 3:30 a.m. three days a week to catch the 6 a.m. flight. We then took the train from the airport to the university. So before his course started at ten o’clock, Bill had already been on the road for at least four hours – and made the same journey again in the evening. In some weeks he even flew to the university for five days: “I was so exhausted.”
Financially, the great effort seems to have paid off for him. He would have had to pay 1,600 US dollars a month for a two-room apartment, the student writes in a pilots’ forum, where he documented his trips in detail. Because of his bonus miles and clever bookings, he only spent a little over $5,500 on the flights, including all the associated costs. A significant saving – and his studies don’t seem to have suffered from the stress of the trip either. “I’m glad I made it without missing a single class,” he wrote on Reddit. “That alone is a miracle.”
Sources: KTLA / Reddit / Flyertalk
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