definitely. Nearly all my travel is for competition with the national team - and not being a glamour sport the amount of money/perks we receive is of the "whatever comes out of your wallet" variety. With my team only the rookies use the federation booked tickets, the rest of us learned long ago we could get it cheaper and better by booking ourselves.

For Olympics the situation might be better, and give you an allowance for equipment, but for many trips federations book you on the cheapest, nastiest airline on ridiculous routings so that it saves $50 overall e.g. rather than SYD-DXB and into Europe on EK with generous baggage allowance - its 4 flights through Asia, different carriers, and actually having your shoulders jam while walking through the bulkhead/galley section.

I pity anybody who was stuck in Economy with the wrestlers (and also the wrestlers jammed into those seats).