As the recession took hold last year, one area in which Americans cut back sharply was air travel. But shareholders kept the corporate jet gassed up and ready to go for a lot of personal trips by executives. Two examples:

Sprint Nextel (S) spent $600,000 last year on personal trips on the corporate jet by finance chief Robert Brust and his family. They used the jet to commute between an out-of-state home and the Kansas City, Mo., area, where Sprint has its headquarters.

Sprint says it had to offer the perk to lure Brust out of retirement a year ago. But he got a $7.65 million cash-and-stock signing bonus and $3.8 million in pay in 2008 -- more than enough to persuade most people to punch in.

The company says it needed Brust for his financial skills at companies facing challenges and that he's done a good job of this, by reducing debt, cutting costs and generating more cash. Since May 1, 2008, when Brust took charge, the stock is down 40%, underperforming the market. But it has more than doubled so far this year.

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) Chairman and CEO Michael Jeffries spent more than most using the corporate jet for personal trips. His total tab for 2008: $1.1 million plus $176,000 the company gave him to pay the tax on all those free trips. Jeffries made $15.9 million in 2008; the company's stock price fell 70%, more than twice the market's 34% loss.

Continued: Ski lodging in Sun Valley

A lot of people cut out ski vacations last winter to trim the family budget. But Ameristar Casinos (ASCA) Chairman Ray Neilsen didn't have to worry about some big ski trip expenses.

Neilsen gets free access to company-leased condominiums in Sun Valley, Idaho, often dubbed the birthplace of the American ski resort. Neilsen doesn't even have to talk business when he's at the resort; he can use the condos for personal trips. Ameristar also picks up all restaurant and bar bills while he's there.

Shareholders might wonder why Neilsen doesn't pay for his private trips to the Sun Valley resort now that times are tough. He's the son of Ameristar founder and former chief Craig Neilsen, whose estate is majority shareholder of the casino company. He makes $1.2 million a year in a part-time job serving as Ameristar's chairman, about twice the average for chairmen at S&P 500 ($INX) companies.

But other Ameristar execs enjoy the condo perk as well, and Ameristar brushes it off, saying it has "minimal" value. It might be worth rethinking, though, since the company's stock lost 70% last year.

Continued: Martha Stewart gets help at home

Martha Stewart recently lamented on her blog that a rainy spring made the hay grow faster than expected on her tony Bedford estate just north of New York City. It had to be cut early.

But given that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) will pay the domestic diva $2 million this year for the use of her estate and homes in her TV show, the CEO likely had enough in the household budget that she didn't have to cut it herself.

That $2 million fee is just one of the many perks keeping Stewart in cupcake heaven during this recession.

She also gets a $3 million "make whole/retention payment" this year, on top of a $2 million salary. This seems a tad unnecessary; would she really leave a company where she's the main asset and a major shareholder? Last year, she also got a $1.25 million make-whole payment plus a variety of reimbursed entertainment, travel and business expenses, and cars and drivers. She also has a personal expense account of $100,000 that never requires her to turn in a receipt.

Stewart suffered with her stock last year, though: It declined about 60%, much more than the market.

A company spokeswoman says Stewart needed the make-whole payments because she'd been working under the same contract since 2004 while her responsibilities had increased sharply, with the addition of a new daily TV show, a weekly TV show, a satellite radio channel and more than a dozen new merchandising agreements. The annual $2 million fee is considered fair exchange for exclusive use of Stewart's properties in media productions.

Continued: At the good old country club

Golf and country club memberships are a favored perk for senior executives, and hard times in 2008 didn't keep them from signing up. Comerica (CMA) spent $202,928 for Chief Executive Ralph Babb to join a club in Dallas after the bank relocated. Comerica, which abandoned Detroit to get away from Michigan's sluggish economy, got $2.25 billion in bailout funds from the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program last year.

Comerica says it needed to pay for the club membership "as part of a competitive pay package" and for Babb's "convenience." But with pay of $6.8 million in 2008 and $9.1 million in 2007, couldn't he have footed the bill himself? The company could have used the help; its stock dropped 50% last year.

Toy maker Mattel (MAT) forked out $150,000 to cover country club membership initiation fees for CEO Robert Eckert, who made $7 million for the year. (Eckert also got a company car benefit worth $50,000 and $285,000 worth of corporate jet use for private trips in 2008.)

Mattel did have a fairly good 2008, with its stock down a little more than 10% -- much better than the overall market.

Continued: Car racing with the kids

Auto racing offers tons of excitement, but few drivers win the big prizes. If you feel a need for speed, it helps to have a corporate parent to foot the bill.

This is where race car drivers Ken Butler III and Brett Butler have lucked out big time. Their father, Bill Butler Jr., is the chief operating officer at rental company Aaron's (AAN), which likes to sponsor drivers.

The company paid $260,000 to sponsor Ken as a driver on the Eddie Sharp Racing team in the ARCA RE/MAX series in 2008. This year, Dad's company will spend $1.6 million to sponsor Brett as member of the Robert Richardson Racing Team. He'll drive an Aaron's-sponsored car for 18 races this season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Such sponsorships look dodgy when the drivers are sons of a company bigwig, says Paul Hodgson, an executive-compensation expert with The Corporate Library.

But this isn't the first year critics have taken aim at this particular payout, and Aaron's is unrepentant. The company says car racing sponsorships are an "integral part" of its marketing. Aaron's stock did advance by more than 25% last year, while the overall market was in the tank.

Continued: No job, but a nice office

During the tenure of Richard Parsons as CEO at Time Warner (TWX) from May 16, 2002, to Dec. 31, 2007, the media giant's stock was a complete dud. It declined 10%, compared with a 34% gain for the S&P 500 Index ($INX).

Despite this dismal performance, Time Warner's board paid Parsons $39 million in bonuses during that time frame, part of an overall $87 million pay package.

Last year, Parsons got $10.4 million for service as chairman, a position he left at the end of the year. His total pay at Time Warner: around $100 million, though a lot of that was in options that aren't worth as much now. All told, from the day Parsons started work through his departure, Time Warner's stock fell 44%, compared with an 18% market decline.

Shareholders are still paying bills for Parsons. The media company is giving him an office, with a secretary, at $776,000 this year, even though he has moved on to become a director at Citigroup (C).

Parsons isn't the only former CEO who enjoys the perk of costly office help. Former Kelly Services (KELYA) CEO Terence Adderley got $519,800 worth of "staff support" last year, even though he had stepped down as CEO in 2006. At least Adderley is still board chairman. He got paid nearly $1 million for that role last year, or twice what's considered normal at a large company. It's easy to guess why Adderley has such a nice deal: He controls most of Kelly Services' voting stock.

And yes, he's suffering because of it. Kelly Services stock dropped 27% last year, though that was less than the market overall.

Continued: The $140,000 company car

A company car is hardly a rare perk, but some rides are sweeter than others,

Last year, Skechers USA (SKX) spent $140,000 on a car for company President Michael Greenberg. He's the son of Skechers' Chairman and CEO Robert Greenberg, who controls the company because he owns most of the voting stock.

Other Skechers executives also get the company to pay for their rides. But compared with the others, $140,000 in a year seems excessive. The company logged $116,000 in car expenses for Chief Operating Officer David Weinberg and $51,000 in car expenses for Robert Greenberg -- over the past three years.

So what kind of car did the company president get? We asked. Skechers wouldn't say.

Skechers' stock, by the way, fell 30% in 2008, ending the year just below the level where it first traded publicly back in 1999.

Continued: Tough home market? Not for all

The housing market showed no mercy last year for anyone trying to sell a house because they needed to move for work. The high-end home market in particular has been tough, sticking among others Treasury chief Tim Geithner.

But at least one corporate executive isn't feeling the pinch.

Defense contractor Raytheon (RTN) paid the president of its missile-systems unit $500,000 last year to make up for the losses he took when sold a Massachusetts home to relocate to Tucson, Ariz. Raytheon says it gave Taylor Lawrence the subsidy because of "the dramatic decline in real-estate values" since 2006, when Lawrence bought the house in a move to New England to work for the company.

The payment was meant to "keep him whole on the sale of his house and to enable him to remain focused on his new assignment," a company spokesman says.

Raytheon also paid Lawrence $229,471 for the cost of the move and $372,259 to cover the costs of all those move-related perks.

While many Americans would love a home sale subsidy, Lawrence is in a better position than most to do without. He earned $3.2 million last year.

But Raytheon shareholders did fare better than the market last year. The defense contractor's stock dropped only 15%.

Continued: What do you think?

Which perk is the most outrageous? Let us know by voting in the poll above. If you are wondering why the perks continue even in this economic environment and what you can do about it, take a look at "Why CEOs fat perks roll on."

Now read "As banks broke down, CEOs cashed in"