Things I've learned from 6 extra seat purchases and flights:

1. Put your desired seats on hold. Treat the extra seat as a person with the first name Exst and your last name. If you want an exit row seat, enter a birth date of something like 1/1/2000 so the extra person is old enough to sit in the exit row.

2. If you don't want to pay the taxes for the extra seat, or if you want to use Flight Credits to pay for it, you'll have to call customer service for ticketing. I've found that they understand what they need to do, which includes calling their help desk to remove taxes, apply a FC, etc. which can add 15-30 minutes while they wait on queue for help. Don't let the agent use Xtra or anything else as a first name, Exst is the AA standard and results in the easy acceptances described below. If you go through agent ticketing the Exst will be attached to you and follow you if seats are reassigned.

3. If you don't want to go through step 2, and just want to pay for the seats or apply Travel Credits, my experience with just buying a ticket for Exst with my last name has been successful. I can't print this boarding pass at home, online or at a kiosk, I have to go to the premium check-in at the airport and ask for a boarding pass. No problems with this so far. Possibly being LP may prevent AA from splitting us up if the aircraft changes?

4. As you board, scan your boarding pass, then hand the Exst boarding pass to the gate agent and tell them it's for the extra seat. They'll check it in, so that the seat doesn't appear as a no-show. No problems with this so far.

5. If you cancel, Exst will get his own Flight Credit or Travel Credit. Keep track of the ticket number from the email because it won't appear in your AA wallet.

6. Flight attendants reactions:
One asking in-flight where our third person was because his count was off. I just told him it was an extra seat and all was good.
One tried to move a very large passenger from the packed-full exit row in front of us to our exit row. I just showed her the boarding pass and all was good.

In my opinion, three exit row seats for the two of us has been better than first class. Boarding in Group 3 is fine, we don't drink alcohol while flying, and we get an extra seat to store stuff under. Plus we get to choose whether to sit in the middle or the window depending on cold and view. We start off in middle and window to avoid being knocked about during boarding. We always have checked bags to claim so getting off the plane a few minutes later doesn't matter. The biggest flaw is the potential for changed seats (and maybe being split up from Mrs. Siankaan1) if the aircraft is changed.

Next trip: LAX-KOA in the exit row for just $100 x 3....minus some tax savings for Mr. Exst Siankaan1.