Speaking of passing around the hat, my father used to work for Air New Zealand and told me about the first time one of the jets was diverted from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The aircraft was refueled and one of the ground engineers asked the captain how he was going to pay. The company didn't have an account as Las Vegas and in the end one of the cabin crew had to pay for the fuel with his gold card.
Anyways my contribution...
"Bob suddenly realised the true cost of a self-funding Air Traffic Control system"