TTN,
I know what you mean. In the 1980s I was the lead Tornado GR1 SEngO for the RED FLAG season (3 x dets over 6 weeks in those days with officers in the Mardi Gras hotel and airmen in Circus Circus casino) and on my first recce trip to Nellis AFB led by an HQ 1 Gp wg cdr who had been before. To keep air transport costs down, we were supposed to use the RAF VC10 shuttle to Washington - Dulles then CIVAIR to Las Vegas and stay there for 5 days for a 2-day conference / recce.
Upon arrival at Dulles, the wg cdr arranged changing all our tickets and hotel bookings to go for a weekend in New Orleans and a day and night in Dallas - at neutral cost - to arrive in Las Vegas the day before the conference.
If it wasn't uncanny enough to be driving around Vegas in shorts and a short sleeved shirt in December, the wg cdr then announced "a few hours until the conference - time for a cocktail". Having collected all the freebies they gave away on the "Old Strip" in those days - souvenir coffee mug, almost free buffet salad coupons etc - we settled down on the chintzy couches and ordered a multi-colored cocktail at 1000 - just because we could.
This Belinda Carlisle video was on a large screen TV - the song became part of the soundtrack of my life and I too thought "I can't believe we're getting paid to do this !" Three trips in a tour and now it's my nearest big city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGEyBeoBGM
The whole travel / claims situation was not so flexible by the time I retired in 2009 - just going in a Service vehicle to Germany was a drama.