No Alan and here's why. Pilots travel in the course of their actual work. Most times that work travel requires a hotel away from base. That is rightly paid for by the company and rightly recognized by the IRS as not being income. An office worker (Moak) does not travel away from base when said office worker is at the office. Thus no hotel or housing is required because...it's his base. Now if your company (ALPA) provides it for you anyway, it's considered residential housing at your base. This allows you to keep more of your other money that others have to use for their housing, thus the IRS rightly recognizes this as income. Same with meals, same with cars.

Since you're really struggling with an analogy as the one you're trying to use is collapsing around you, allow me to throw you a lifeline. The correct analogy would be Delta paying for the housing, car and meals of a commuting pilot before and after the trip. If Delta did that, the IRS would rightly consider that income. Why? Because paying for commuting expenses allows you to keep more of your salary.

Carl