‘Climate change loves this guy’: This grad student took 238 flights from L.A. to San Francisco to avoid paying rent — how to lower your housing costs (without ruining your carbon footprint)

In that time, he apparently spent the equivalent of 52.75 days on his commute — or more than seven weeks around the clock — which includes time in the air, waiting at airports and driving to and from. He flew more than 92,000 miles and says he regularly woke up at 3:30 in the morning to catch his flights.

Bill, who “fell in love with transportation” as a child, documented his sky-high lodging strategy on a now-viral Reddit post and detailed all of his costs on Flyertalk, an internet forum for the frequent flier community.⁠

“This is probably one of the craziest things I've done in my life,” he told Reddit. “I'm so glad I made it through, without missing ANY classes — that itself is a miracle.”

An ‘epic commute’

When Bill found out he got into UC Berkeley, he says he told his colleagues he might commute to school by air “just to save money and avoid paying Bay Area rent.”

They thought he was joking — but for Bill, the math made sense.

He checked the price of student housing near the Berkeley campus and found he’d have to pay around $1,600 a month plus utilities for a single room — and the rental contract would be 12 months when his graduate program was technically only eight months long.

Over a year — if Bill paid an estimated $100 a month for utilities on top of rent — his total living costs would be around $20,400. That’s before the cost of graduate tuition, fees and student health insurance of around $27,300 for California residents — plus other personal expenses like food and transportation, though the latter might be a wash if he ate at airport food courts and tallied his travel to and from them.

But thanks to his “crazy idea” — plus a mix of frequent flier points, airline promotions, credit card hacks and some savvy ticket booking tactics — Bill says he only ended up paying $5,592.66 by flying to school. In the end, that means he may have saved himself around $12,000 to $15,000.

But considering the number of days spent on his commute, at a $25/hour salary, he also forfeited $10,550 in possible income.

His flight habit — while thrifty — drew the ire of some climate-conscious Reddit users, with one commenting, “Climate change loves this guy,” while another said, “bro personally added a degree to the world temps.”

Bill says he “wouldn't recommend anyone to attempt” a similar “epic commute.” He admits that the money-saving part was just him convincing himself — but “the real incentive is the cool story and amazing trip.”

Here are some simpler ways to reduce your housing costs — without ruining your carbon footprint or waiting forever in a TSA line.

More: Best travel credit cards of 2023

Limit your financial burden

One of the easiest ways for renters to save money is by finding a roommate to split costs. While you’ll give up some privacy, you'll also enjoy significant savings you can use to pay off debt or even put toward buying your first home.

If money’s tight, you may also need to compromise on where you live. Typically, the further away you are from a major school (in Bill’s case) or a downtown core, the cheaper your rent will be.

One Reddit user who commented on Bill’s post pointed that out: “You could've just lived a bit further away from campus or gotten a roommate... absolutely insane to burn through miles like that.”