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Comment by blackhole | Hacker News Reader

A few months ago my friend saw an ad in his university newspaper for a hackathon that was scheduled to start the next day. I happened to not have anything scheduled that weekend, and he asked me if I could team up with him to participate.

The thing was, he lives in California, and I live in Washington. He found one last remaining seat on the last flight headed out that night and bought a ticket for me. By 9 PM, I was stepping off an airplane roughly 1600 miles from home. When I woke up that morning, I had no idea I'd sleep on a couch in a dorm room at SJSU.

We seriously live in the future.

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The future is really amazing.

It was raining in NYC in mid october (screw that) and I REALLY wanted a steak. Seeing as how a good, high quality grass fed steak can end up in the $100 range in NYC, I thought

"I wonder how much it would cost to go to Buenos Aires tonight?"

I pulled up aa.com and checked the Award Reservations---it was only 40,000 ffmiles + $42.40. For a same day reservation.

Since I run a site all about how to get unlimited free airline miles, I had several million--so the total real cost to me (to get to Buenos Aires) was $42.40. Four hours later I was boarding a plane, and 13 hours later I was eating the best steak known to mankind.

Definitely worth it :)

Should have flown to Kobe, Japan instead. :)

Significantly more expensive airfare, and the beef still costs $100!

Would love to know more about racking up a million miles for free. What website do you run?

it's called http://www.hackthesystem.com . The guide to getting free miles is the Travel Hacking Report. It also talks about how I get free offices in almost every country in the world.

Saw your previous comment and hunted this down. Just read the whole thing -- very, very cool. Regus Businessworld will definitely come in handy; $300/yr isn't bad at all, but 6 months free can't be beat! Nice job.

it's actually forever free---they say only 6 months, but the expiration is non-existent. I've been using mine for over 4 years!

Is this mostly with credit card churning or mile runs?

churning

Churning really depends on your credit. Shaphire and the high mileage cards require you to have a very good score and decent sized credit history.

The really cool thing about going to Buenos Aires is that its often the same time zone as NYC and the flights are overnight. So you can go to sleep in NYC and wake up in Argentina with no jet lag (if you can sleep on planes).

I live 4 miles from work. I left my house at 8:20am and arrived in my office at 9:25am.

Try to grab a train from San Francisco to LA. That's about 400 miles. How long would you expect that to take in this future of which you speak?

For reference, the plane flight itself was 2 hours. I didn't know I was going until 3 PM.

Perhaps the future isn't evenly distributed.

Regarding the article, I'd like to see them plot the rate-of-change: how long it took to go from a month to a week to a day and so on, and then continue it into the present day. I think we've hit something of a cap on speed.

Not necessarily. IIRC, outside of the East Coast corridor, the rails only allow the trains to go ~35mph. There are also high-speed / bullet trains as well, none of which are available in the US (for now).

The train from LA to Flagstaff hits 70+mph at times, though the average is around 50mph once you factor in stops and waiting for freight to pass.

The biggest thing slowing down US passenger trains is that the routes are leased from freight lines and the freight trains take priority.

And inside the East Coast corridor, regular bicycles are prohibited on all Amtrak trains at all times. I would literally pay an extra $50 per bicycle round trip if they offered it, but they do not. Oh, and the train from NYC to Montreal runs slowly, which gives it an ideal duration for a night service, but none is ever offered. You have to do the 12-hour trip during the day, which for working people is nonsensical.

The future is rarely evenly distributed.

If you value the precious few minutes you have on this Earth, I suggest you get a job on the Internet instead of whatever the hell you're doing now.

Yes, flying is quick, but the more people who fly the larger the airports you need, and large airports need to be situated outside of urban centers.

Getting the Eurostar from London to Paris would take you no more than three hours (2:15 for the journey, checking in 45 minutes before departure). Flying from London to Paris would take two hours (1:15 for the journey, again checking in 45 minutes before departure), but you've got to get to and from the airport, whereas the train is taking you directly into the city.

Across medium distances (SF to LA, Paris to London, etc) high speed rail typically provides better passenger comfort, lower CO2 emissions, and travel times as fast as flying once you factor in transit.

From London's business district, it is actually faster to get to London City Airport than St. Pancras station for the Eurostar.

This is made even more bizarre by the fact that St. Pancras where the Eurostar terminates is one of the only train stations in London which is located such that trains heading out need to "turn around" to get where they are going. You'd think the Eurostar would terminate south-east of London since that's where the train travels, but this one breaks the rules.

Oh, and EasyJet is probably cheaper than Eurostar to Paris if you don't have a lot of advance notice. I still love the trains, but you didn't pick the best example!

The Erostar terminates in North London so that the vast majority of its passengers who are from north of London don't have to get across the city. Despite heading in the wrong direction its quicker than the underground.

You have ebbsfleet and Ashford for passengers from south of the city.

I'm having a hard time understanding your justification. Ebbsfleet is 25 miles ESE of London (Ashford 50+ miles), with no local (TfL) connections. I'm also curious to know the basis for your claim that "the vast majority" of Eurostar customers are from north of London. I hear lots of people live in Surrey, not to mention London proper.

My point is that London is the south east, by bringing the erostar round to north London it is easer for the whole country to use. There is probably an argument that they should have a station in South London but the Erostar is there to cater to the whole country, not just london.

Eurostar terminating in North London is because they wanted the high speed line to run to the East of London so it would be easier to connect it to the North of the UK for further possible direct links from Manchester/Liverpool/etc.

Also, it would have cost vastly more to put full high speed lines required in most of the way to London Waterloo.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_1

" The next plan for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link involved a tunnel reaching London from the south-east, and an underground terminus in the vicinity of Kings Cross station. However a late change in the plans, principally driven by the then Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine's desire for urban regeneration in east London, led to a change of route, with the new line approaching London from the east. This opened the possibility of reusing the underused St Pancras station as the terminus, with access via the North London Line that crosses the throat of the station.[26] "

Have you considered biking? If the terrain is somewhat flat I guess it would take about half the time, and you will get daily, light exercise as an added bonus.

Edit: Also, I would be interested to know how long it would take by bike if you happen to know :-)

If you jog you can get there in 30 minutes. :)

> I live 4 miles from work. I left my house at 8:20am and arrived in my office at 9:25am.

You walked to work? Good on you... ;)

Or he lives RIGHT on the edge of a timezone ;)

On the way back from my honeymoon this past summer, I woke up one morning in Bangkok, spent that night in Abu Dhabi, and the following night in my own bed in Kansas City, having traveled more than halfway around the world. The future indeed!

It would been even better if you got there in half the time. I would love for Concorde to come back with some improvements of course.

The future is 1975?

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