I always wondered what happened to that family who did everything wrong (kept bouncing from airport to airport with no real idea if anything they were doing would help, no internet access, no contact with the buddy pass "owner" etc...)
I was in Madrid a few summers ago and there were some upset people there who were stuck on buddy passes. One of them got rather irate with someone from Delta who looked at him and said "one more outburst and you won't ever be getting on a plane" His wife drug him away, it was very apparent that the relative who had given them this pass had not explained the risks.
I used to have access to these and had a GREAT priority. (My sponsor had been at Delta for 50 plus years) Even with that I only used them for short domestic hops and this was in the 70's, 80's. It's just too risky if you have to get back to work on a reasonable schedule.