My suggestion was that he list for an alternate city from the start, because seats to CDG are scarce & not recommended for non rev travel this summer. But yes, in theory, he could list for CDG then if he didn't get on, try for BRU or another destination. While the preference would be that the person issuing the buddy pass make any needed changes, a DL agent could take care of it at the airport if he were already there bouncing among flights, with any related charges for changes handled accordingly.

If the employee makes the buddy pass change, there is no change fee other than difference in fare/taxes. The employee who is offering the pass should be the person you work with as they have access to all the information. I have to agree with previous statements that odds are low that this will be a smooth trip.

Thanks for all the replies everyone... it definitely doesn't sound like it would be easy. I was hoping, because the cheapest flights we can find for the time period are over $1400. My friend quickly looked up buddy pass and said it would be around $200 + taxes (I don't know how much those are, but probably another several hundred...). So the buddy pass did seem much cheaper, but with only one eligible flight out of ATL per day, the odds are bad. We will probably just end up purchasing this one, since it would be nice if we could make it to CDG at close to the same time to help with luggage (and we will also have a dog as baggage on my paid-for flight). Maybe we'll try the buddy pass later in the year when he comes over more permanently.

Was that $200 quoted for a one-way flight, not round trip? ;) It sounded like he would need a RT to go over with you then return to the US to move to Paris later. Of course then just double-ish the cost to include his return, plus the fuel charge, to estimate full costs. In any case, sounds like you have justified a confirmed ticket for this trip.

Buddy passes....
 

My girlfriend and I are traveling to South Africa in a couple months, and we are using buddy passes to travel both ways. There is a connecting flight in the Netherlands, and then it's on to Cape Town.
My question is, on both flights, if we are able to obtain a sit on the originating flight, are we assured one on the connecting flight? Also, we are changing planes on both connecting flights.
Thank you for any and all information that you can give me.

Talk to the employee who gave you the buddy passes. There might be an embargo on using them for South Africa.

Better double check that. The only Delta flight to South Africa is the non stop from ATL to JNB. If you are connecting in AMS then it's KLM and buddy passes (Delta) are only valid on Delta metal. And MSPeconomist is correct, there are certain dates when they are embargoed.

Admittedly, I don't have any expertise on buddy passes. However, my understanding has always been that on non-embargoed dates, they were good on a seat availability basis. Thus, it is conceivable that you could have a seat on the first leg of a trip and no seat on the connecting flight irregardless of the issues pointed out about buddy passes not being valid on KLM metal. Is this correct?

If you're using Delta Buddy Passes, they are only good on Delta metal, and as previously stated the only Delta flight to South Africa is ATL-JNB, which is a payload optimization flight, and almost always full anyway. Buddy passes have near zero chance of making that flight on a regular basis.

I find it odd that a DL employee would give buddy passes to friends for travel through AMS to fly KLM to South Africa. It seems downright irresponsible and if we know that either it's not allowed or the odds of getting on the flight are effectively zero, then surely an employee would either know this or know to check it. Could these buddy passes have been purchased on eBay or something?

Possible but not likely. They have to be purchased through the employee's log in on the employee travel site and require form of payment at that time. The days of the paper passes (and all the illegitimate business associated) are gone, as are alot of the employees who sold them.

If an attempt was made to purchase that routing the system would kick it back and not allow it. Once the origin and destination are plugged in then you pick from the available options and that routing would not be one of them.

Sorry not possible to use on KLM or any other airline. Where did you get these passes?

another buddy pass question
 

Please don't flame because I didn't search for this. I have a bit of an emergency and have time issues so this is quicker. My son just found out that his best friend died suddenly in an accident over the weekend. Son is currently living in Sydney and needs to get back to be with mutual friends and attend the funeral and separate memorial at their college in ATL. Daughter and son in law live in China. SIL has a cousin that works for DL and graciously offered a buddy pass. Because of distance and time change communication is a bit hard.

If the cousin gives my son a buddy pass, is the pass only good for a certain route or can it be rewritten for another routing at the airport if my son doesn't make the more direct routing out of SYD? My son is worried about that and I'm doing all I can to try to help him from ATL.

Thanks in advance!!!!

With a DL Buddy Pass, out of SYD, the only place he can go is LAX, and then on to ATL. Must fly on DL metal.

You can change routing on them no problems, but there is one DL flight from Sydney, and all travel must be on DL, so hes going to have to take SYD-LAX. Now LAX-ATL can be a nightmare, but it is definitely the easiest routing. Otherwise something like LAX-CVG-ATL could work. With that being said, I try to convince people to never, ever use a buddy pass. They are truly awful nowadays, however for SYD at this time of year, flights are generally pretty open. Should be remarkably easy to get to LAX, so I'd say go for it.