OSFSCOTT -
I know you have already gotten quite an education here from many of us.
You must consider that buddy passes to Europe in the summer are false economy. You will be much better off to return and cash in those passes and get online to find a reasonable price to purchase tickets. Unless you are feeling extremely lucky, it will be much cheaper in the long run.
I really feel that Tempe lifting the summer European embargo on buddy pass riders was done out of sheer ignorance. They have demonstrated time and time again that they are clueless in running a transoceanic operation, and this is just another example. Don't get caught in the middle of their stupidity.
With the embargo gone and the west employees (who are higher priority than buddy pass riders) running their butts across the Atlantic this summer, there will be much wailing (literally) and gnashing of teeth at the USAirways European stations as these employees are faced with the reality that they will NOT get home to get to work, the station agent will NOT be able to help them even a little bit even if they wanted to and their "freebie" flights will be one of the most expensive mistakes they ever made.
The east employees have been there, done that, and the embargo was instituted to keep unsuspecting non-employees from becoming victims of summer travel. Now the embargo is gone and it will NOT be pretty this summer. By next summer, the embargo will be back once Tempe has learned the lesson for themselves the hard way.
