Marty Shapiro wrote:
Inspector's for at least 2 FSDO's that I'm aware of say otherwise.
They were very clear in different Wings safety seminars that providing air
transportation for a friend is NOT permitted for a private pilot. One even
stated that the FAA added the definition of logging time as compensation
for this exact case, where the pilot does not charge at all. They
empasized that unless you were going to make the trip regardless of whether
or not your friend was going along, you would be violating the FARs.

Another point (not saying that I'm right or you're right) is that if
you are paying for the entire cost of the flight, how can logging
flight time which *you* are paying for be perceived as being received
from the passenger?

The logged time cannot (should not) be considered compensation from the
passenger because the passenger in now way provided it to you. However,
if there are shared expenses, then it could be seen that the passenger
payed for some of the logged time.