s0ssos

So is it actually a rule that you can SDC to a different airport? What if Alaska cuts their intra-CA routes and all the flights are full, so there is no other flight to change to?

As others noted only WN makes sense. And I only know a person who commuted via plane twice a week, as in one flight there on Mon and another flight back on Fri, not daily.

The risk of missing classes seems high, but if you are able to utilize the time on transit effectively (cause all you are doing is public transit, though don't know how much time you will spend driving to LAX).

I know someone who went back basically every weekend in college (5 hour drive) and it really changes the college experience. But that was undergrad. I don't know that grad school is the same thing.

PDXPremier

Keep in mind that the OP clearly enjoys flying and earning elite status as evidenced by their extremely frequent mileage runs earlier this year before the airfares skyrocketed (smart move). I will be the lone wolf here and say that if you have the miles and financial means, it sounds kinda fun to be honest but then again this is Flyertalk, right? I will say that the socialization factor was an important factor to consider during my undergrad years, but grad school was mostly just about getting that degree and being done with it so I personally wouldn't factor that into consideration in this case. You'll definately get a lot of use out of your Alaska Lounge membership

VegasGambler

I'm really unclear on this. The web site says no. But apparently you still can. I used to do it all the time, but that was before the web site said you couldn't. I'm not sure if it's intentional that you still can.

But my point was that WN has no SDCs at all. If you want to change your flight to a later one or to a different airport you pay the fare difference. Obviously that is usually extremely expensive. I believe you can stand by for an earlier flight for free (with same origin and destination) of you have the right status. You can "game" this by booking the last flight of the day and standing by when you are ready to go. As long as the flights aren't full this works, more or less. But when you start not clearing and just keep waiting in the airport, it's brutal.

I have worked with people who have done this (also SoCal to Bay Area) It's not too bad. But no one really cares if you leave work early on a Friday (at least, they didn't where I worked).

ashill

Speaking as a professor, +1 to what several others have said. It is important to be in class (I see students who think they don’t need to show up struggle mightily every term, since class does matter), but listening to us professors yammer is among the least important parts of any worthwhile education. What’s far more important is the time spent sitting around a table with your classmates working on problem sets (or whatever the out of class work is in your field), office hours, talks/seminars, and other out-of-class academic and non-academic activities. If you’re skipping all of that, find a program that’s actually designed to be online (a completely different way of structuring a course, a task which we all found out in COVID times is anything but trivial) rather than a Berkeley program.

Two chances for IRROPS every single class day just doesn’t make that feasible, IMHO. And relying on the ability for AS to endorse your ticket over to another airline wouldn’t comfort me much at all. If there’s fog in SFO, what makes you think UA is going to be able to get you there when AS can’t? And the mental energy you’d spend keeping track of all the tickets you’re proposing booking as backup seems like it could go to a far better place.

s0ssos

I guess the thing is this makes for an epic story.
And many would do something for that reason alone.

I mean, many of us do so much more just for that 'aspirational' award (change our schedule so we can get that first-class flight, book a positioning flight to get to a location where that award flight is available, modify our vacation instead to be where the destination of the award flight is, etc. Flight can easily be substituted for 'hotel')

Kamiakdad

Vegas,
The website says in general SDC to Co terminal is not allowed but the website also gives exceptions to the policy. One exception is if you are an elite member. The no change to Co terminal is waived for elite members. I have used this exception several times in the past 6 months to change a SEA to LAX to PAE to SNA on a SDC. I just call the elite member number and request the change and if seats are available the reservation is changed to the Co terminal destinations.

OP,
Don't do it. It may save a few bucks but you will lose more in not building relationships with other outstanding and future business partnerships, let alone the massive mental drain traveling that much has on one's psyche. Either move or find a school in Southern cal, you will not regret it.

jrl767

I live near Magnolia Village, and have done more than a few SEA-LAX down-and-backs for all-day meetings in El Segundo over the past few years

published flight times were ~0615-0900 southbound and ~1830-2115 northbound, which meant total door-to-door time was on the order of 18 hours

• roll out of bed at 0400, shower and dress; in the car at 0430 for the 18-mile drive to SEA
• walk into the AS Lounge ~0530 for juice and coffee and a banana; board ~T-25
• arrive Avis ~0930, pick up car, arrive El Segundo ~0945
• depart El Segundo ~1700; if possible (depending on actual departure time), make a quick happy hour stop at Flights or Standard Station or similar venue; return car ~T-60 min and take Avis shuttle to T6 (walk from T1 if roadway is crowded/slow); board ~T-25
• in car ~10 min after blocking in (~15 min if on N); arrive home ~45 min later

I cannot imagine doing this sort of thing — even with an hour or so less flight time on each leg — 2-3x/week while trying to maintain a semblance of a normal life as well as an even keel in the grad school environment

985X

Exactly. I think I'm still young to handle this, but I'm not so sure. Back in Jan/Feb/Mar, I've done 40 hours of full-time work, plus mileage runs: every Tuesday night-Wednesday morning LAX-EWR-LAX roundtrip (13 hours), and every weekend one LAX-SEA-BOS-SEA-LAX roundtrip (straight 24 hours). To motivate myself for this crazy commute plan, I even applied Guinness world record for the longest school commute distance within a year, the application is still pending. I know it sounds possible in theory, but in reality I'm just not confident enough that this would work. And it seems everyone is objecting it..

985X

I got admitted to other schools in LA area like UCLA and U$C (yeah I know I'm using $ here). The reason I chose Berkeley is because they offer the BEST civil engineering program. And the program I'm doing is Master of Engineering (MEng), which is focused on professional career development and leadership skills, unlike the traditional MS research based track which could lead to PhD. I chose transportation engineering as my major because I enjoy riding transit and planes. You made a great point about reliability and WN vs. AS, but the issue is I need to use AS award tickets to cut down the cost. The purpose of this crazy commute is to save money, and having classes MWF only makes it a little less miserable (well the cool story part could be the cherry on the top). One thing I worry most is the cohort part. I'm not sure whether this MEng program is designed to be engaging everyone through courses and capstone projects, or each of us working on our own except for the capstone project. I'm always open to meet new people, but if we have dinner or social together after classes, I can still take the 10pm flight home, which is doable but exhausting for sure. Tough decisions..

LWkitty

I'm glad to see yourself reconsidering this plan. Keep reading responses here and thinking on the negative impact this 3x weekly commute is going to have on your education (and not a cheap one, I might add).

Also, is there any other way to spell it besides U$C? 🤣

notquiteaff

A friend of mine got a degree from the London School of Business several years ago. He was “commuting” from the Bay Area. Obviously not daily. I don’t recall all the details, but I think he probably would have gotten more BIS miles. Presumably Guinness doesn’t do the 500 mile minimum per segment

Congrats on getting into Berkeley. I loved my time in graduate school and can’t imagine doing it with a long distance commute from SoCal.

Maybe do a dry run for a week (travel back and forth every day for five days), including the BART part. Just the thought of breakfast in the LAX lounge every day is depressing to me.

Ilove2fly

Don't do it... I spend 1/3 of my working life on the road and had done mileage runs. The couple of working day trips I had nearly killed me. Woke up at 4, got home at midnight and had to be functional the next day? It's hard Working day trips are very different from the mileage runs. I think of mileage run as a time to be alone and recharge. You know, selfcare. Attending classes or work meetings require your full attention and they are very draining. By the end of day if you are not exhausted, you have not done your job right. Besides, there will be group projects. I went to a commuter grad school. Did not make any real friends. Some of my children's best friends are from the grad schools. Both of my children met their spouses in the grad school. So many positives come with slowing down and smell the roses.

You are going to need well deserved vacations. Use those miles to book your vacations to awesome places early.

Edit: maybe you can rent a room as a crash pad.

ezak

Hey OP, let me share a conversation here:

I had a friend working in one of the big Bay Area tech firms. Last year, he told me that after the pandemic, they might do a "3 days in the office, 2 days remote" schedule. Then I said if I were him, I'd live in some place like Bend Oregon (where you're only one direct flight away from SFO), and go to the office only from Tuesday to Thursday. To accomplish that, I would keep a car at SFO, fly down there on Tuesday morning and back on Thursday evening, and sleep in my car for the two nights. Big tech companies all have nice showers to freshen up, so this way my only commute cost would be the 1x weekly roundtrip ticket, which can also get me to at least 75k with AS. Basically, I'll be able to make Bay Area money while enjoying a much better living condition in the Cascades. Then my friend looked at me as if I'm totally crazy.

So I was really excited when to read your post, because finally someone is even crazier than I was!

Seriously, I really admire your plan and I think it's totally doable. However, I do want to offer some concerns that you might want to consider. Many members have shared their objections above, so I'll try not to repeat those.

1. For the cost analysis, when you said this can save $10k, did you factor in the value of your AS miles, or did you consider them "free" tickets? Personally, I value AS miles at 1.7-1.8 cent, which means 850k miles are worth around $15k. Put it in another perspective: 130k is enough for a round trip business class ticket on JL to anywhere in Southeast Asia, and 850k is good for at least 6 such trips. If you're not a fan of premium cabin and don't mind flying economy for long hauls, then these miles can get you even farther. When you consider the opportunity cost of burning all your miles, I think they'd have significant value. In other words, if every same-day round trip LAX-SFO costs around $170 cash, which is a fair price, would you still consider this plan?

2. I know many people have mentioned the social aspect of a Master's program, but did you consider your own commitment as well? I've been through graduate school too, and at some point, you'll want to skip classes, either because they're not interesting enough or you're simply too tired. When you're only 30 minutes from campus, this's not a big deal, and skipping one or two classes per semester should be fine. But when you're commuting from SoCal, you might find yourself asking: is it worth it to go through all these trouble for two hours of lecture today? Then you may be asking this question every time and choosing to skip the day many times. Grad school can be very challenging, and from my own experience, you might want to make things easier for yourself, otherwise there might be too many excuses for failure.

3. If I may suggest some alternatives, try to see if you have friends in the area to rent you a room for the week. Seriously, many people own large houses in the Bay Area and have spare guest rooms available. You'll be staying only during the week, out early and back late. If you could just take the budget from the 2x weekly flights and use those as rent, personally I'd love to take a house guest like you (if I had a house in the Bay Area, ha!).

4. If you still want to fly every day, OAK should be much more preferable than SFO. When I looked at your schedule, the BART part actually sounds the most excruciating. It's so hard to focus (or relax) on public transportation. I once commuted from the South Bay to SF for a year, and those hours take even more energy than 8 hours in the office.

Years ago, I drove between LA and SF on a bi-weekly basis for an entire year. People called me crazy but I did make it (and enjoyed it). So whatever you choose, I hope you it's the best choice for yourself. I really, really love your idea and if you do carry it out, it'll be the best flyertalk story I've ever read!

Erasmus

I am not a Civil Engineer, but I am a professor at (another) top-10 California engineering school and I can still assure you that the difference between Berkeley and either of those programs for an MEng is not worth the commute you are proposing. (Yes, I realize Berkeley is #1 according to USN, but you realize the department-level rankings are beauty pageants, right?). Spending a fully-engaged year at either of the LA schools will be much more worth your while than a barely-there experience at Cal, *especially* since you say you want to remain the LA Basin long term, so you want to make network/job connections there anyway.

You don't need advice from frequent fliers, you need to speak to a student advisor or other academic you'll trust. This is so far from worth it it's not even close---even if Berkeley were free and you had to pay for USC!

AUCLABruin

Hmm, while I got accepted into U$C, the university that I ended up going to makes it that I have to call it U$C.

To the OP, while this might sound exciting for the first few weeks, I can't imagine the stress coming in once the first midterms roll in.
While others brought up the the issue of social gatherings, I think all of the working from home has shown that this isn't truly necessary, but you will have to spend some time to make connections.

I commuted to school on public transportation and never stayed on campus for anything besides my classes. While I am happy with my college experience (at least for my undergrad, credential is another story) there is probably a need for those connections to be made.
I failed to make any connections once I got my credential in education, and as a result, I spent too much time trying to get my career going. That might be something else to consider, though with a master's in engineering, that might not be as big of a concern as it was in education pre-pandemic.