I am a Platinum Pro, flying with my parents this week. Looks like the front cabin has 6 empty seats, so I’m crossing my fingers for an upgrade. Neither of my parents has status. Since we were all on the same PNR, I called AA and reservations split our party onto two PNRs, requesting an auto-upgrade for my mom and me.

In case I get two upgraded seats, I’d like to give both of them to my parents and I’ll sit in MCE by myself.

Dumb question: I hear people say all the time that they gave up their seat to their spouse. If this happens, do we need to tell the gate agent first what we’re doing? Do they have to make the swap official in their system? Should we just trade paper boarding passes? Or just board and sit in the other person’s seat?

I’m not sure how much has to be made official and whether it’s frowned upon in actual practice. I’ve been traveling for a while but this is the first time I’m in this situation.