Two points I'd like to make:
1. Your friend did not "book" anybody on a buddy pass to anywhere. "Book" implies that one has a seat reserved, and buddy pass holders never have that. What your friend might have done is "list" the buddy pass holders on those flights. Basically, all that means is that the agents are aware that the buddy pass holders are trying to fly on that flight. It is a waiting "list." And buddy pass holders are at the very bottom of that list.
2. I don't know if the policy has changed with the merger, but it had been prohibited for buddy pass holders to fly to Europe during the summer season unless the sponsoring employee (or employee's spouse) is riding with the buddy pass riders. The reason is that before this policy, often buddy pass riders might get to Europe and then get stuck there literally for weeks trying to get back home due to the high demand. Even though buddy pass riders have basically no rights to anything, tempers often flared after sitting in the airport for days at a time and spending extra weeks of hotel rooms and missing work back home. Rather than deal with it, the company prohibited such travel. An exception was made if the employee (or spouse) was along on the trip because that bumps the buddy pass riders up to the same priority as the employee (which is not great, but better) and the employee would be in a better position to get discounted hotels and keep their buddies from shooting off their mouths inappropriately. (Again, this may have all changed after the merger, but I doubt it.) If it has not changed, you cannot travel on those passes to Rome in July. The downside is that the agents in MCI may not tell you that and happily let you use that buddy pass to go to PHL before you find out that your vacation will be in PHL, not Rome.
