In early May 2004 I had to cancel a trip to Italy on US and was given vouchers for the price of the cancelled tickets minus US's $200(!) per ticket cancellation fee. The printed vouchers say that they expire in May 2005 (1 year from the departure of the original flight).

Do I have to actually fly before their expiration date, or simply purchase new tickets before the vouchers turn to dust? Ideally I would like to use the vouchers to purchase new tickets to Europe, but for flights that are not until next June/July. Anything wrong with this, or, as I suspect/hope, once I apply the vouchers to a ticket, their expiration date is meaningless.

Thanks

In early May 2004 I had to cancel a trip to Italy on US and was given vouchers for the price of the cancelled tickets minus US's $200(!) per ticket cancellation fee. The printed vouchers say that they expire in May 2005 (1 year from the departure of the original flight).

Do I have to actually fly before their expiration date, or simply purchase new tickets before the vouchers turn to dust? Ideally I would like to use the vouchers to purchase new tickets to Europe, but for flights that are not until next June/July. Anything wrong with this, or, as I suspect/hope, once I apply the vouchers to a ticket, their expiration date is meaningless.

Thanks
I believe you have one year to ticket the flight for any time in the next year from the date of ticketing.

That's correct. You have to ticket it within a year and fly within 330 days from the ticketing point.