I'm trying to book awards for 3 friends to fly EWR-KOA, and needed to do a phone hold so we could firm up plans. Of course since I live in SEA, I am not on the same itinerary (am flying NW in fact...)...so therefore I'm told there is a $15/ticket handling fee for phone bookings.

Question:
1) Is this fee waived for 1Ks if they are using miles from their account?
2) How safe is it to cancel the hold and immediately book online?