Berkeley Student Commutes By Plane From LA To Save On Rent

LOS ANGELES — A Berkeley graduate student found a creative way to avoid paying the infamously high Bay Area rents: Commute by plane from Los Angeles.

The student, Bill, who KTLA identified only by his first name, told the station that his master of engineering program at the University of California, Berkeley, was only a year long; his Los Angeles rent was affordable; and he knew he’d be staying in southern California after graduation.

“So last year I had this crazy idea of living in LA and commuting to school by plane just to avoid expensive rent around campus,” he wrote in a Reddit post detailing his airborne adventures.

Bill only needed to come to campus three times most weeks, he wrote, so he booked all his tickets months in advance, partially relying on miles and points from airlines.

“Typically, the door-to-door commute time between my home in LA and my classroom in Berkeley is 4-5hrs EACH WAY,” he wrote.

His total travel cost for the academic year was $5,592.66 — including parking, gas, public transit and wifi, according to the Reddit post, with a total of 114 trips and 92,089 miles.

“This is probably one of the craziest thing(s) I've done in my life, and I'm so glad I made it through, without missing ANY classes, that itself is a miracle,” he wrote.