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Comment by mdorazio | Hacker News Reader

The problem is that even pre-COVID, business travelers only accounted for somewhere around 30% of air travelers. Post-COVID, that number is far lower. So stupidly high prices that are affordable to business travelers with expense accounts are not even remotely affordable for the vast majority of travelers.

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Sometimes those per diems are flat rate & direct paid, so whatever you don’t spend, you get to pocket yourself.

And if limited per day, spending less at the airport can mean spending more elsewhere.

(Non-USian) Does the IRS treat these expenses as taxable benefits? Even Paying 30% tax eats into a $27 meh meal vs packing your own.

Per diem reimbursements are not taxable income, neither are direct reimbursements for business expenses (including michelin-starred dinners).

Not always true (in the US). Per diem and other travel expenses are not taxable for up to 1 year spent traveling away from the employee’s home, though that ‘year’ doesn’t necessarily have to be consecutive time spent away, and there are a variety of complications that influence when the taxation would kick in (e.g. when was the project known to be over 12 months in duration? When does the employee spend over 50% of their time in a location other than ‘home’ for business purposes? and many other nuances).

The joys of the US tax code -_-

We used to do actuals for business trip expenses. It was very obnoxious having to justify every dollar you spent and needing the receipts to back them up. Forget to grab a receipt for a gas station coffee and sandwich and the admin assistant just assumes you were buying cigarettes and a 40oz. Whatever money the company was saving on paying actual expenses, I'm sure they were paying more for approving complicated expense reports. Now, we get per diem and there's no annoying oversight into how you spend your money and what on.

Worked for a gov environment that required receipts for everything. Take public transit and you better search out a paper chit for the $3, but drive your car and they’ll accept any mileage at 50c/km.

Was more about checking boxes than anything else.

Was funny when you have a dinner with 7 people and end up with 14 receipts because we can’t expense alcohol.

Business travelers, whatever their head share may be, still responsible for 90% of spending in airports. Either market or Soviet cafeteria, you know

If I'm not flying for business, I'm intentionally not spending money in the airport as much as possible. I'd rather time my travels to get a decent meal for a good price before I get to the airport.

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