I wonder if the family consider that attitude contemptable and give him the green light to stop over. After all, it's not like the whole trip was just to visit Meghan, but missing an opportunity to see her because of such an issue is just plain silly.
Sometimes I wonder about the petty-minded out there. It is almost as if Harry has to stay at home, inside KP, unless on official business because every time he goes out KP gates he needs a PO. I wouldn't mind betting there's a PO hanging around since Harry, may need to pop down to the market for groceries.
If I were a royal, I would find it quite frustrating that it isn't just a simple thing of tacking on a couple of days pleasure trip to the end of a work one. So many normal people do it with no trouble. But as I recall, the practice was determined to be problematic when Prince Andrew made a regular habit of it and it turned out to create a lot of headaches. The issue is determining exactly where the line is drawn when allocating bills to be paid (for airfare, protection officer costs, etc) as part of whatever official effort the royal is supporting versus the royal's private funds. When the trip is all business or all personal it's clear. When it's both, portions are clear but there's often also a gray area.
For instance, when Harry had the work trip to the Caribbean and stopped in Toronto on the way home, the flight from the Caribbean to Toronto was obviously his to cover, but what about Toronto to London? He needed to take an intercontinental flight one way or another, so did he just swap one for the other and it's on his work tab? But what if there's a big price differential between the flight he would have taken if the trip had been simply work vs. the one he actually took? Should he pay the difference but expect the government to pay the rest? Again, working from memory, I recall that accounting difficulties with Andrew's trips lead to the decision that best practice is just to keep work trips and private trips completely separate.
That said, a big part of the issue with Andrew seemed to be that he wasn't very transparent with the powers that be about his plans to mix work and pleasure, which just fed confusion when the accountants had to sort out the expense reports. If Harry is willing to just be clear from the start with trip planners, it's possible they could negotiate acceptable plans ahead of time ("we cover this, you pay for that, agreed?") that make it possible for him to visit Meghan whenever work takes him to the Americas.
ETA: I did a quick search that turned up this story about some of what the trouble with Andrew's travel was, but not one from when the BRF got stricter with him. I don't have time right now to keep looking deeper...sorry.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...tries-and-clocked-up-67000-miles-in-2014.html
Bottom line, though, someone in the family took way too much advantage of all the travel that comes with the job in such a way that made it harder for everyone else, Harry included.
