All hotels are paid for (single occupancy!) until after IOE. The hotels that we use for training in Dayton are decent at best. The main one has free breakfast, gives you a free bagged lunch each day, and has a cheap restaurant for dinner. The $40.80 in per diem per day is usually much more than you need for food and other basic living expenses.

You receive full pay during training, and are paid per diem 24 hours a day. This ends up being 75 hours of credit for the month, plus $40.80 of per diem for every day of the month that you are in training. The training pay is really pretty good.

The company also has to give you relocation days in your base.

I really don't remember all of the specifics, but the way I remember it working is... Lets say you finish IOE on the 15th of the month. You are then given SCR for the end of this month and next month. The company must provide you with relocation days in which to "move" to base. Until they do so, you are paid 24 hour perdiem and given hotel rooms. There are some more specifics, but it is very generous.

There should be very few costs during training. Ipads and all training materials are free. I probably spent about $50 at Kinkos making copies and printing things, but that was for things that I wanted and were not required. I think I spent another $10 of foam board and tape to make a "paper tiger" in my room, but that was about it.