In early Feb, I purchased business class tickets for myself and my husband (DEN-EWR-DUB) as well as for my Dad and Mom (EWR-DUB) for late Jul 2020. All UA metal and separate PNRs, booked directly through UA. Because of some health reasons (and then COVID-19), I ended up not telling my parents and not giving them the tickets.

So, I have these four business class tickets hanging out there and trying to figure out how to get the most value out of these. My husband and I could try to rebook and go to Ireland without my parents. This is not ideal and we are still not sure what to do with the parents’ tickets.

Before COVID-19, we were planning to go to Chile in 2021. DEN-IAH-SCL is more expensive than getting to DUB, but I am wondering if there is a way to put the value of all four tickets to just the two needed for DEN-SCL?

Could I cancel all of them and I believe UA would give me FFCs for each PNR or passenger? Then could book an inexpensive flight under my parents’ name to get most of the residual value of their tickets as a ETC? Basically, write off the cheap tickets and then use the combined FFCs and the ETCs to buy the DEN-SCL tickets? Is this even possible? I guess, I could also wait it out and see if they cancel the original flights in July and try to get a refund for both?

Thoughts or other ideas? Thanks so much for your help with this.