The biggest problem was the person who gave this family the buddy passes, without explaining how a buddy pass works and what kind of seat availability there was for the airport he wanted to travel to.

I still work in aviation, though not at an airline. I have a friend who does work for an airline and am happy that he will allow me to use some of his buddy passes. But we check the passenger loads very carefully for my planned itinerary, and I plan travel dates accordingly.