Originally Posted by sdsearch

I don't see how you come to that conclusion. In your example you say "I added my and my wife's AA numbers to the reservation".

So the correct statement would seem to be:

"The person who has the card has to have their FFN on the reservation."

The OP I was replying to had not said they'd done that. They had the FFN of the OP (who did not have the card) for both people, by virtue of the OP (who did not have the card) having booked the reservation for both people with the OP's miles. You had the FFN of the person who had the card for one the people, and I think that's likely a necessary step.

The card is linked to the passenger through the FFN, not anything else, so if the FFN of the person who has the card is not attached to anyone who's flying on that itinerary, it's not likely to work. What your example does show is that is only need to be attached to one person on the itinerary, not both. But the OP I was replying still would need to change his wife's ticket to have his wife's FFN to for the card to be "visible" to the reservation.