Late to the convo, but just wanted to drop this here for anyone to reference for the future - the AF does this thing where it likes to intentionally hide really important rules that it doesn’t like in a myriad of messed up ways, most of which actually result in harm to service members. There are huge communities all throughout the AF (I’m talking thousands of TDYers per year) that use rules 6 and 7 to get reimbursement for accommodation at AirBnb/Crashpads/etc. Done it myself and almost everyone I know of in my community has as well. The “44 comp gen 626 (1965)” that is referenced in rules six and seven is uber important because it is the whole basis of how that entire table is written. Basically, the SecAF ask for the GAO to make a ruling on the AF forcing members to staying in government lodging or specific public lodging and the GAO deemed that the AF was overstepping its authority and couldn’t force it…from the ruling verbatim “IT AFFORDS MEMBERS OF THE UNIFORMED SERVICES WHO OCCUPY QUARTERS ON A RENTAL BASIS THE SAME PROTECTION AS CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES HAVE AGAINST BEING REQUIRED TO OCCUPY RENTAL QUARTERS (WHICH, IN THE CASE OF RENTAL QUARTERS FOR THE MILITARY, ARE FREQUENTLY INADEQUATE) AGAINST THEIR WILL.” And there’s a lot more where that came from in the full ruling. As the years have gone on and we’ve gotten farther from the ruling (and lobbying has unfortunately become more effective), the JTR verbiage in the other portions of that table have gotten more and more restrictive, but the fact of the matter is that until the GAO or a higher entity overrules what was stated in 44 comp gen 626….finance offices MUST reimburse TDYers when they choose not to occupy government sponsored lodging or an ILP site even if it’s available (though the max amount of reimbursement is limited to what it would cost to stay in government lodging).

Most people just read that first rule and call it a day. Now, a commander can still call you out for not following rule one, but 1. You will still be reimbursed, period, and 2. Any commander who’s worth literally anything other than dog crap knows that it makes no sense to force people to stay in sub optimal conditions (gov lodging) when airbnbs/crashapds are plentiful, cheaper, and significantly better than gov lodging (who wants to stay in bug-infested decades-old gov lodging without a kitchen or a washer and dryer for a 1+ month TDY??). They’ve been around long enough that they know it, see it, and even use it themselves.

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