I just received a companion certificate that has a travel expiration date of January 31, 2018. Interestingly, it has no embargo dates for 2018. Of course, only embargo dates occurring in January of 2018 would be pertain to my certificate since travel must be complete by the end of that month.

As for 2016, I was able to upgrade on my companion certificate after I split the reservation from my companions. Did anyone else have success upgrading in 2016 when using the companion certificates?

I am also curious if anyone earned miles while being the $99 companion certificate passenger. A friend told me that he did earn miles but my companions did not.