Originally Posted by Rossodio

I have some interesting information/data points on the companion certificates that were not entirely clear to me previously.

I booked a pair of paid tickets for a nonstop itinerary for myself and mini-Rossodio, and tacked on the 2 companion tickets for Mrs. Rossodio and mini-Mrs. Rossodio. I am the only one of us who has status, and the only one who has an AA branded credit card. I took a paid upgrade for all of us to first class on the outbound segment because it was an absolute steal shortly thereafter, and left the inbound segment alone at that point.

I had in my mind to not mess with the tickets beyond this because I had read that the companion certificate tickets can be weird or potentially outright canceled if the reservation is altered, but it must have slipped my mind, as I called the EP line about 72 hours or so pre-outbound departure to split us into two PNR's - one with me and our son, and the other with my wife and our daughter. I put myself and my son on the comp upgrade list as a couple for the inbound segment, and we got a comp upgrade together on our PNR about 26 hours before the inbound flight was to depart.

I checked in via the app on my phone, and then checked in Mrs. Rossodio and mini-Mrs. Rossodio on Mrs. Rossodio's login. Checking in for her and our daughter, it asked how many bags they planned to check on their PNR, with accompanying standard bag check fees for non status members. I did not check any bags on their PNR, as we had only 5 bags to check and my EP PNR with my son would cover all of these free of charge due to status. I of course gave my upgraded seat away to a female family member to avoid post-touchdown purgatory once home and gave the other to my son. When I showed up to the ticketing agent in the priority line with my family, Mrs. Rossodio and mini-Mrs. Rossodio were both group 1 on their tickets. Myself and my son were both FC. Our tickets all scanned through when group 1 was called and we went in together without the beep of shame.

So I can say the following about these certificate tickets, at least based upon my experience:
- If the reservation is broken into separate PNR's, there is still no problem flying on the companion certificates - even if they are the only tickets on that specific linked PNR. I presume you still all have to fly together (if I did a same day change on my PNR, not sure what would happen to the companion certificate tickets; I am guessing they are not eligible for same day flight change(?), though I did see the option in the app to do a same day flight change for my tickets at no charge).
- If you have status that is for the whole group you originally book with, at least in the case of companion certificate tickets/PNR, that status's boarding group - but not free checked baggage privileges - apply also to the PNR that just consists of non-status companion certificate recipients.