The point was that a passenger isn&#x27;t allowed to buy a hamburger for a private pilot as &quot;compensation&quot;, even though it only costs ~$10 and doesn&#x27;t even remotely cover expenses.  (In the case of a &quot;$100 hamburger run&quot;, going to a restaurant at a distant airport may be the intended destination -- so offering to buy someone&#x27;s meal at said restaurant might otherwise assumed to be a reasonable thing to do.)<p>You are, however, allowed to split expenses evenly with passengers -- provided everyone is sharing the same common purpose (e.g. flying for fun). But the key part here is that the pilot isn&#x27;t allowed to receive anything that could be remotely interpreted as compensation.