If Y is oversold then someone has to get an opup (else IDB which is too expensive to be at all likely). That would likely be the highest status pax. Then, empty seats (all in J) would go to nonrevs.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this summer there will be far more Americans flocking to Europe for vacations than in years past. This is due to the Dollar-Euro conversion being incredibly favorable to Americans right now.

Perhaps you'd consider flying to a less touristy city (BRU, STR, MAN, SVO) and taking a cheap flight or train to your final destination?

Also look into Norwegian Air...they have some crazy deals to Europe from various cities in the US this summer: http://www.norwegian.com/us/

If the employee issuing the buddy pass is at all confident you'd make it to FCO or LHR in the middle of the summer, you should run away. That is NOT the way things work in the summer. You will quite literally be last on standby...below all employees, their family members and even Delta retirees.

For Italy, your chances might be better to MXP if DL still serves Milan as that's more of a business destination with fewer tourists and business travel generally declining a bit during the summer. You could then easily take trains to go elsewhere in Italy.

For the buddy pass, must you specify the destination in advance or is it based on zones so that you could simultaneously list for a number of nearby airports on the same day and just go from gate to gate until you get on some flight to Europe?

You have to list for a specific flight, then if you don't get on you could switch to another one if timing allows. The airline frowns upon listing for multiple flights on the same day or for the same flight across multiple days. For buddy passes I'm not even sure you could have multiple listings without burning multiple buddy passes.

So a buddy could sequentially try for flights to different European destinations without needing to have the buddy pass rewritten or anything done by the employee sponsor?

Ideally the employee would take care of it but a GA or other DL agent could make the change if time allows, i.e. If they have time in the midst of dealing w revenue pax, which I suspect is very much YMMV.

The best case scenario would be to have the employee available at the time of travel to advise on flight loads & back-up options and make necessary changes on listings vs. asking an airport employee for their time on the case.

I would only recommend a non-rev professional to use buddy passes during summer, and even then, only if they are traveling alone or max two adults (who don't mind being split up).

My cousin has considered flying standby with her two children between NYC and ATL where there are 40 flights/day. I told her that it is especially ill advised with children. Even if the flights look good the day before anything can happen and the flights are suddenly overbooked. Do you even want to be stuck at your home airport (with hungry children!) for hours on end, much less a connecting airport?!

That's one thing that is somewhat better for international travel: in most cases you don't get a bunch of people booking at the last minute as you do for domestic travel. So if you luck out and find a transoceanic flight with several empty seats the day before travel, chances are that there will still be some free seats the next day. Of course, finding that during summer may be wishful thinking.

You say that, but I have a friend who tried ATL-AMS (3 DL, 1 KL per day) one February and, (due to weather that week?) what looked good yesterday, turned impossible day of. Anything can happen, even with revenue tickets, but when you're on your own all parties involved should know what they're singing up for... and since a child wouldn't understand I'd say it's always a no go when they're involved. :p

That's an idea. 30 seconds of listening to me sing and they'd put me on the flight just to get rid of me.

Singing for a seat instead of singing for your supper?

Did your friend explain everything that the previous posters have pointed out?
Did your friend point you to the "Travel Guide for non-employees and Buddy Pass Riders" at http://dlnet.delta.com/ ?
Did your friend explain the Buddy Pass Embargo's that are in effect on Transatlantic travel and their effect on routes that aren't embargoed but get the overflow traffic.
Did you friend explain the necessity of having alternative plans such as Award or paid ticket availability?
Did your friend explain that you must fly on Delta metal? While there are 4 JFK-FCO flights a day, 3 are Code Shares on AZ (Alitalia) and you can't fly those on a buddy pass?
Is your friend willing to be available to support your travel by doing the rebookings that you may need while you're at the airport.

The daily Milan (MXP) flight, which has been suggested, leaves before the FCO flight and there's only about 45 minutes between them so the FCO flight is not a backup for the MXP flight.

Did you think about not being able to get to FCO on your planned schedule with your daughter and the effects on your relationship with her?

Do you realize that due to the uncertainties of travel, if you book a hotel you may not get there in time to use it and if you don't book one, you may pay very high prices when you do get there as well as having to scramble to find one.

Did you look at the cost of alternative paid flights vs the expense of being stranded in Europe for a few days when hotel occupancies and prices are high and you have to find a new place every day? You can book JFK-MXP for a few hundred $ more than your Buddy Pass to FCO and know that you're flying.

Sure, people do successfully non-rev or fly Buddy Passes TATL in peak summer season but the successful ones either have the TravelNet access or a friend or relative who's committed to helping them as needed, they have alternative plans and it's not their first time so they're familiar with the process.

My wife and I are Delta Pass Riders and fly TATL. We've been through this (not Buddy Passes though). In January we got stuck in AMS due to a major east coast storm. We needed to get back to the US so we purchased last minute Award Tickets, which was Plan B and less expensive than Plan C which was to purchase revenue tickets.

There were a number of posts last summer in this forum from people who were stranded overseas and had purchased Buddy Passes from employees who were selling them to anyone against DL rules. If this is the case, I suggest that you run away from this as quickly as you can. If this is really legitimate, I encourage you to think about what the effects will be on your relationship with your daughter if you are unable to get to FCO or get stranded there for days vs. the additional cost of cheap confirmed tickets and a train or LCC flight to and from FCO.

Additional information:

You can't tell what the real booking situation is without your friend checking TravelNet to see both seat availability AND the Non Revenue Standby List. There might be 25 seats open and 45 people with higher priority then you who've listed for the flight. Then it depends on which NRSA's actually check in for the flights. A very fluid situation.

Here's a typical summer day from JFK.
You can typically list for 1 flight in the first group and if you don't make it, tyr the second group, etc. It's further complicated by the use of both T2 and T4 for departures.

Ams 446 4:20 pm
cph 218 4:40 pm
ath 40 4:46 pm
psa 413 5:15 pm

mxp 418 6:43 pm
lhr 401 7:00 pm
ath 44 7:30 pm
fco 444 7:30 pm
mad 414 7:35 pm
fra 410 7:36 pm
bru 42 7:38 pm
cdg 400 7:45 pm
bcn 476 7:48 pm
zur 407 7:56 pm
ams 48 8:01 pm
lhr 402 8:30 pm

nce 412 9:10 pm
arn 202 9:28 pm

man 234 10:15 pm
lhr 403 10:30 pm
snn 406 10:35 pm
agp 214 11:31 pm

This cannot be stressed enough -- if there is cash involved in this buddy pass transaction, run away as fast as you can. Make the issuing employee use your personal credit/debit card to issue the tickets. Any responses about "it doesn't work that way" or "just write me a check" are HUGE red flags.

Also, if I recall correctly: if you have an airport agent modify the ticket on your behalf, DL will charge you a fee for each modification.

But based on what others are saying here, this sounds like a terrible idea all around.

Back in college I non-reved all the time through my uncle (3-4 years ago). I doubt much has changed, other than flights being more full. Going to FCO was a huge no a few years ago and I'm sure still is today. Think out the box, where regular tourists don't want to go. You'll end up in a BE seat in no time.

I remember being stranded in AMS for a week. Starting in the early morning I would go from one gate to the other, constantly changing my reservation just trying to get any flight into the US. Definitely not fun...

A friend got stuck in TXL, where there is only one flight a day. Took him over two weeks to finally get home.