Originally Posted by
sailingfun
I beleive its the first day in class. Be very careful with buddy passes if you want to keep them as friends. They are expensive and can leave you stranded. I use them but make sure it's realistic. If someone wants to go to Europe in the summer I simply say no.
Pretty good advice in general.
Make sure you know their situation too. A family of 4 that can't separate and wants to sit together trying to to go EU in the summer or MCO/LAS anytime, etc and pretty much forget about it. A single friend with flexibile travel plans that can afford to get stranded somewhere for a week? Hey, have at it.
I'm getting to the point where I'm about to only give them out for flexible international travel, preferrably off peak. Thats all they are good for. Show up to ATL/JFK and 4 or 5 hours prior to the flight see what's wide open in first as well as open in the back, considering non revs, as well as for the return flight, and that's where you're going. Book it, check in, hang around another hour or so, and if its still open and there's not a massive weather event moving in, go on priceline or whatever and book your hotels etc.
Anything else is just dumb. Buddy pass charges can rival or sometimes exceed positive space coach and you could get stranded somewhere for over a week easy. I've found that when you try to tell people this, their eyes glaze over as long as its a dollar cheaper than buying it and they want it anyway, even with full coach and -40 in the back with 60 non revs. They just want to save that dollar.
They get severe tunnel vision and its up to you to not let them. Buddy passes mostly suck unless you use them for wide open flexible internationa where you'll definately get first class at least one way.