so the answer to the original question is yes you can use your points to pay for someone elses flights. makes me wonder why they say you need status or a CC to pool points. my GF has zero points as i discovered since they got wiped out from non use. thankfully i always did the surveys to keep them active

another hour to BWI isnt ideal but the MUCH better flight times and saving tons of money makes it well worth it.! i guess ill never know why philly is over 4x more expensive than bwi. but given the worse flight times i prefer bwi anyway.

i also see The Parking spot is very close to the airport and i can use my points from PHL there as well. so happy cruise to me!