Thank you for the quick responses so far! And thanks OCC for those links, which I will make some time to read more fully later today.

I have no idea why FRA, other than there's a nonstop there from ATL and their friend said it's usually a good flight for standbys. I hadn't yet looked at different gateways for their flights. Whenever I book them revenue to Europe, we look at all airlines and all reasonable connection points (either air or train), I just hadn't gotten to that point yet.

Good to know the ballpark cost of the buddy pass - what's the process for actually pricing the thing out? Is that something the employee would usually need to do using the dates/route being requested? If so, I may ask another friend of mine who works for DL if he can get a more exact price for me to use as their comparison point. I'm assuming it isn't some formula I can somehow do myself with public info (e.g., adding up taxes + fuel surcharges + some % of base fare or something).