Layovers and crashpads: what the rules separate
Layover lodging and a crashpad near base are different facts. One sits inside travel away from home, the other next to the personal-expense boundary.
Getting yourself from where you live to the base you are assigned to is your own trip to work. The regulation under section 262 treats commuting costs as personal expenses, and Publication 463 says the distance from home to the regular place of work does not change that.
What the rules say
Layover lodging and layover meals
Layover lodging and layover meals — Only once a tax home is established
Lodging while away from home is named separately from meals in section 162(a)(2), and the percentage limitation in section 274(n) applies to expenses for food or beverages. Lodging therefore does not inherit the meal percentage limitation. Whether any away-from-home cost is reached at all still depends on the tax home and on the worker class.
Travelling away from your tax home
Travelling away from your tax home — Only once a tax home is established
Section 162(a)(2) allows traveling expenses, including amounts spent on meals and lodging that are not lavish or extravagant, only while away from home in the pursuit of a trade or business. Regulation 1.162-2 adds that only travelling expenses that are reasonable and necessary in the conduct of the business and directly attributable to it are within the allowance. Because the condition is being away from home, the location of the tax home is decided first.
Getting yourself to base
The cost of travelling between a home and a main or regular place of work is a personal expense. Regulation 1.262-1(b)(5) states that commuting costs do not qualify as deductible expenses, and Publication 463 adds that this does not change with the distance between the home and the regular place of work, and does not change because work is performed during the trip. Nothing in the retrieved authority makes an exception for travel taken by air, on a non-revenue seat, or at any particular frequency.
A crew base is not a tax home
An assigned crew base or domicile is a scheduling fact your employer records. Publication 463 locates a tax home by the nature of the work and the places of business, and no authority we retrieved says an assignment to a base settles that question by itself.
Getting yourself from where you live to the base you are assigned to is your own trip to work. The regulation under section 262 treats commuting costs as personal expenses, and Publication 463 says the distance from home to the regular place of work does not change that.
Flying on a non-revenue seat describes the ticket, not the purpose of the trip. Crew ride non-revenue to get to base, to reposition on duty, and on personal trips, so the seat alone tells the rules nothing.
What we are not saying here
Where this comes from
Every statement above comes from one of these. Each link goes to the official text, with the body that issued it and the date we read it.
- 26 U.S.C. § 162 — Trade or business expensesUnited States Code (GPO, govinfo) · 2023 edition · read 2026-08-16
- 26 U.S.C. § 274 — Disallowance of certain entertainment, etc., expensesUnited States Code (GPO, govinfo) · 2023 edition · read 2026-08-16
- 26 C.F.R. § 1.162-2 — Traveling expensesElectronic Code of Federal Regulations · current eCFR · read 2026-08-16
- IRS Publication 463 — Travel, Gift, and Car ExpensesInternal Revenue Service · current online revision (page last reviewed 30-Apr-2026) · read 2026-08-16
- 26 U.S.C. § 262 — Personal, living, and family expensesUnited States Code (GPO, govinfo) · 2023 edition · read 2026-08-16
- 26 C.F.R. § 1.262-1 — Personal, living, and family expensesElectronic Code of Federal Regulations · current eCFR · read 2026-08-16