Originally Posted by
golfingboy
He is actually going to be paying for his ticket - just that we will use my miles for flexibility, but he will be "IOU-ing" me for the miles.
Oh, so we keep getting "the rest of the story", huh? More detail comes out...
I still wouldn't be doing back to back redeyes (plus going PIT-LAX first) in order to hang out with him, spend extra time shambling around BCN jet lagged, just to get a slightly better free meal or free booze in JFK and make it easier for him to travel.
Hell, I'd probably book HIM through JFK and ME through CLT if it came down to it (giving him a more convenient travel path out of LAX if I really thought it would be more considerate of his travel needs, rather than making him connect to get to CLT, and thinking he might like the JFK FL). I think a friendship can survive a day separated on planes, and you'll have plenty of time to golf and bond once you get to Europe. I've done trips with buddies separated by plane travel where we meet at the destination airport (because we're starting in different cities); it works fine. You're going to be using the plane to sleep mostly anyway.