My Take Away
 

too many members who are lawyers (or who are not lawyers but really wish they were) on FT :)

TO BE CLEAR: I have not done anything yet, I wanted to consult your collective knowledge before I did anything and if I loose the award space, so be it.

A few key points:

1. I have enough miles in my Advantage account for one round trip ticket in First Class on Cathay Pacific Airlines to BKK.
2. I have enough miles in my Alaska Airlines account for one round trip ticket in First Class on Cathay Pacific Airlines to BKK.

My best friend from Medical School was recently found to be in complete remission from appendiceal cancer (a rare cancer to begin with). To celebrate we all (she, my wife and I) decided to go somewhere outside the USA and she picked BKK.

Fine, she is covering the hotels and I said that I would treat her to the flight and since she has always heard my Wife and I talk about First Class on this airline or that one, I would fly her in First Class. Since my Wife is going to be Tokyo for a conference anyway, she would use the conference to pay for the long part of the ticket and she would buy a ticket to BKK in cash.

Ok, now I have found award space on Cathay a small miracle in of itself and set out to pay for it, the issue I do not enough have miles in any account to pay for 2 tickets, but I have enough miles in the AA and AS accounts that I referenced above for a ticket each.

My fear AA will see me redeeming a ticket in a difference person's name, i.e. looks like I am selling ticket and not realize that I am myself flying on the same flights but using AS miles for my ticket or visa versa I use the AS miles for my friend's ticket and the AA miles for ticket and AS assumes I am selling the miles because I am not also in their eyes flying on the same flight.

Obviously, I could email AA or AS if either questioned the transaction a copy of my ticket, but that is after the investigation has started and it seems from reading this thread and others that the fraud departments are not quick to investigate and close their investigations.

My question, is there any way to short circuit any possible investigation by explaining upfront what I am attempting to do, so it is not seen as suspicious or am I overthinking the entire thing?

Any insight, I would greatly appreciate.

Thanks,
Kmersh

You are overthinking it. There is nothing suspicious about simply redeeming an award for someone else, even if you aren't flying on the same flights. Book the flight for your friend and don't worry (and congrats to her for beating cancer).

I am sorry to hear of your friend's illness and I hope that she fights it off.

Ignoring other considerations, can you get the tickets as two one ways with both of you on the same PNR? This woulkd show that you are travelling together and also makes it less likely that you will be parted in the case of IRROPS.

If you are both flying from the same city - just link the PNR's when you make the second reservation.

Either way - this situation is easily explainable if any questions are asked since you are flying on the same itinerary and you could answer any questions about the person traveling on your award (name, address, age etc) - unlike somebody who has sold an award to an unknown traveler. Most importantly - your guest would also be able to explain where they got the ticket.

I have given away dozens of tickets to friends and family over the past 20 years - no issues at all.

There are no rules against gifting tickets - just selling.

It is very common to "gift" miles/tickets to someone. The trick is to NOT talk about trading room for flights or any other form of barter, especially on travel forums (AA does monitor FT). Even though it sounds innocent enough, someone may choose to take it out of context and drop the hammer on you (jr staff looking to make points at work?).

Just keep an eye on all the rezzies to make sure they progress through to ticketed and stays there. Call AA at the first sign of anything wrong.

AA, in the strictest definition of the rules, could see this as bartering.

I think you have some good advice from others above.

Book a one-way reservation that the account owner AND the friend travel on the same itinerary, same PNR. Do the same on either AA or AS account - both are on one-way system therefore it makes things really simple and easy.

As long as the account owner is also traveling on the same PNR, you should be fine on that. You could mention to the agent that is "me and my friend" traveling together and ask the agent to notate the reservation accordingly but it is not necessary.

Otherwise you are thinking way too much.

The hotel part does not need to be mentioned anywhere, including here. It is strictly your private matter.

Side benefit here is that if there are any irregular operations, the airline will recognize you are traveling together and would hopefully reroute you on the same flights. Book separate tickets and you could end up on entirely different replacement flights if something goes wrong.

All excellent advice, I had not thought about the one-way/one-way idea and I am going to run with that.

Flyertalk is truly a great resource and you all are the reason.

THANK YOU!!!

This is sound advice. I had this happen once when I was traveling with my spouse who doesn't have status. Our final segment had a rolling delay that turned into a cancellation. By the time we found out about the cancellation I was getting the call from AA about having been rebooked on the first flight out the next morning. She was placed on a subsequent flight in the afternoon. The EXP desk couldn't do anything since the flights were all zeroed out, and we ended up both having to push the schedule back to the next evening to get home on the same flight. That being said, I've traveled on the same flights but with different PNRs many times without problems.

So an update, I.booked the tickets as two one-ways, without issue and I greatly appreciate your collective advice.

Interestingly, the American Airlines phone rep did ask how we were getting home and I explained that I was booking the return portion via Alaska Airlines.

She laughed and said that she had no heard of a passenger using two different airline accounts to book a trip but more power to me.

Alaska didn't even make a comment.

Thanks again for all of your advice!

Not to rain on your parade, but IF AA chooses to take action, it probably won't be until right before the trip. Keep an eye on your rez and take action at the first sign of a problem. There have been some reports of them dropping the hammer on the return trip (since you're on another airline not likely here). But imagine trying to get home and have the airline cancel your flight! Walkup fares are not cheap.

Caution always good, but I'd say zero chance of this in this case.

You should be fine.

Over the years I've given a number of AA award trips to others and have had absolutely no problems; I've only rarely been a companion flying with the person using an award (sometimes paying for my ticket, sometimes using an award).