Transfering airline tickets to another person?

[Wingnut]

Does anyone have any recent experience with being able to transfer an unused (US) commercial airline ticket to someone else for their use (e.g. my parents)? The travel agent I purchased them from initially said that I can only have the tickets re-issued to the people whose names appear on the current tickets (with penalties, of course).

Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
-David