In my day, on posting to Germany it was a case of the RAF saying "You'll have to drive to Luton Airport to catch the trooper and sell your car once you get there".
I decided to drive to Gutersloh instead, saving them the air fare. To reward me for that, they took away half a cubic metre of my removals allowance because I could take that much in my car.
When the RAF wrote to me, some years later, because they wanted me back as a High Readiness Reserve pilot, they offered to pay (only) my motor mileage from the airport to Odiham. It would have cost me £1200 round trip for my air ticket each time I flew back to UK!
