Regular flying to complete Master's Degree!

Most students move closer to campus for graduate school, but one student chose a very different path to save money. A graduate student known online as "Bill" kept living in Los Angeles while studying for his one-year, eight-month Master of Engineering in Transportation at the University of California, Berkeley. Instead of renting a room near campus, he flew between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area at least three times every week. His routine was far from easy. Bill woke up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to San Francisco International Airport (SFO). After landing, he took the BART train to Berkeley so he could reach his 10 a.m. classes. Once his school day ended, he made the long trip back, often arriving home in Los Angeles around midnight. Over the course of the program, Bill took an incredible 238 flights and traveled more than 92,000 miles. Most of his flights were with Alaska Airlines, and he saved money by using the frequent-flyer miles he had collected over time. Bill carefully tracked every expense. He spent a total of $5,592.66, which included flights, BART fares, parking, gas, and inflight WiFi. Even with all that travel, the cost was much lower than renting a place in Berkeley. He estimated that living there would have cost about $20,000, based on monthly rent of around $1,600 for a single room plus utility bills. Bill later shared his unusual experience in a viral Reddit AMA and on the FlyerTalk forum. Despite the demanding travel schedule, he successfully completed his master's degree in May 2023, proving that his unusual plan worked.