Not just senior officers. Quite a few of my guys at HQ 11 and HQ 1 Gp used to claim the equivalent road milage to go to stations by piloting themselves. A good scheme all round, I think
I managed this once - every other time the weather was too poor for my IMC rating....
On another occasion, I was 'asked' whether I wouldn't mind 'offering' to fly a couple of senior officers up to Newcastle, stay overnight and bring them back on Sunday..... I now know that this was pretty close to 'illegal public transport', if not actually so.
Anyway, after convincing them that Acklington was, in fact, no longer open and was now an open cast coal mine, 3 of us in the mighty PA28, plus their baggage set off on the first leg to Gamston as I couldn't (legally) put in enough fuel to get all the way to Woolsington. All went fine; I landed, paid for the fuel and landing fee and prepared for the next leg.
Except that the little bugger wouldn't start. Even the folk from Gamston couldn't get it going.... Fortunately the Gp Capt and Wg Cdr were very good about it and grabbed a taxi to the nearest railway station to carry on their journey. I was stuck with the u/s puddlejumper, so spoke to the maintenance people who said that they would check it out, but couldn't release the aircraft until they'd checked with our maintenance people the following day. An expensive night in an hotel in Retford and then off I went the next day with a new impulse magneto. Miserable weather on the way home and Brize ATC made me orbit at 400 ft in rain and mist whilst some TriShaw lumbered its way in from 30 miles away.....
I Learned About Flying From That!