Did they not agree to expense your trip? Back when I was job searching and looking to move cities I would never have agreed to pay for a flight to an interview out of my own pocket, and never had a company request for me to do such a thing.

But paying out of pocket and commuting, wasn't that your decision to put yourself into that scenario? It's immediately (and clearly) lop-sided.

Definitely should have used phone/skype/gtm for the first few interviews, until they proved their interest.