MG, I've sent you a PM.

Thanks very much to everone for your input.

I was, in fact, referring to the "Preferred" seating on AC which is free to SEs and would also be free to any travelling companion of an SE so long as they're on the same PNR.

My problem, I was told, that was since I had one PNR for a revenue ticket and another for reward tickets, I had to pay for the "Preferred" seats for my companions. They couldn't be merged into one PNR. Seems wrong to me to have to fork over another $15-35/seat/flight for several legs when it would have all been free if I had used reward miles for everyone and not paid $800+ for the revenue ticket.

I followed your collective advice and called back. Everything was resolved very quickly and professionally without so much as a mention of any additional fee--for which I am very pleased.

Mark another win for the "hang up and call back" approach.

Cheers all,

YQMer