Supercommuter pays less to live in Ohio and commute to work in New York than rent Manhattan apartment: Here’s how he does it

A supercommuter revealed how he managed to fly to and from New York City every week at a lower cost than renting an apartment in Manhattan.

Chip Cutter, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, moved closer to his family in Columbus, Ohio, early in the pandemic and never left.

He chose to show up at the office at least three days a week while maintaining elite status with both Hyatt and American Airlines, rather than pay thousands of dollars for a shaky studio in Manhattan.

“Friends teased me that I had embraced a life of chaos. They weren’t wrong,” he wrote a recent article on WSJ.

In the article, Cutter shared his bittersweet experience as a super commuter: staying in different hotels every night, rebooking flights at the last minute and writing stories from his spacious Ohio apartment with a picturesque view.

On travel days, Cutter woke up at 4:15 a.m. in Columbus to catch a 6 a.m. flight, arriving at the Midtown Manhattan office after three hours.

He spent nights in an elegant and stylish room at the Beekman, a luxury hotel known for its historic atrium in Lower Manhattan, and enjoyed free breakfast as an elite Hyatt member.

After three days of meeting with sources and working in the office, he would return to Columbus, where rent is half the price of Manhattan.

However, that’s just his romantic vision of being a super commuter: a lifestyle that blows his budget and doesn’t last.

He wrote: ‘No one was shocked, but that fantasy quickly collapsed. Focal points in luxury hotel rooms were the first problem.’

Due to delays, deadlines and unexpected meetings and events, he often had to rebook flights and hotels at the last minute.

He eventually checked in behind pilots and flight attendants at a Hyatt hotel in Jamaica, Queens, near John F. Kennedy International Airport.

To save his hotel points, Cutter had to sleep in different places every night, especially during the city’s peak season, when tourists flooded in and rates skyrocketed.

He wrote: “My obsessive tracking of hotel prices in New York has taught me that dynamic pricing is not the preserve of airlines.

“Hotel costs can fluctuate about half a dozen times on the check-in date, so rather than booking in advance, I would wait to pull the trigger until 10 p.m., several days after rates drop.”

“My rooms overlooked a sea of ​​empty parking spaces, but required half as many points as alternatives in Manhattan.”

When his hotels didn’t have refrigerators or stoves, he relied on yogurt and fruit boxes from a 24-hour CVS for late-night dinners.

On many days the journalist had to rely on the kindness of his friends and colleagues who offered the keys to their vacant rooms in New Jersey, Brooklyn, Chelsea and elsewhere.

“I watered plants, walked friends’ dogs, and fed their cats while they were away. Still, working in a city without a permanent home took its toll,” he wrote.

‘I started to dread the question asked at parties and work events in New York: ‘So where do you live?’

‘Admitting that it was quite complicated, I got sucked into explaining my life as a super commuter.

“Sometimes I would just tell people the location of that night’s hotel. (Chelsea!),” he wrote.

Cutter did his math before entering the supercommuter era, doing everything he could to keep Ohio rent plus travel expenses under $3,200 a month.

“In the end, the math didn’t work. I blew my budget by 15% and used up my mileage balance,” he acknowledged.

Despite the chaos and rising travel costs, Cutter says he’s enjoying the exciting life of a super commuter.

“I still enjoy having one foot in the Midwest and one on the East Coast, although I’m not sure how long I can keep that up.

‘I’m writing this from Columbus, where I look out from my window at a beautiful park.

“My lease is up, but hotel prices in Manhattan have dropped this winter now that the holidays are over. Perhaps the search for an apartment in New York can be postponed a little longer,” he wrote.

His article has elicited an overwhelming response from readers and social media users, including those who are or were super commuters.

“I’ve had three ‘super commute’ experiences, starting with a daily 200-mile round trip on I70 to Glenwood Springs, Colorado for three and a half years. Traffic is light, but winter weather is often challenging,” one person wrote.

“How about being in NYC Tuesday through Thursday. I know when I traveled, Monday mornings were the worst and Friday afternoons weren’t much better,” another social media user suggested.

“It reminded me of my trip from Providence to Houston over a year. “I absolutely loved the city and the company and it was tough but you have to roll with the punches because you were in such a good position,” one person wrote.