Thanks to everyone for your advice - it is much appreciated, although none of it really helped me with United. I'm a Premier Exec, so you'd figure they'd cut me a break. Well, last week I couldn't even get through to customer service b/c of high call volume due to weather. That helped when I called to extend my ticket credit. I called one day AFTER the ticket had expired (b/c i couldn't get through to them) and they gave me a 48 hour extension to use the credit. Here's what happened:

- The original ticket was an international non-refundable. United would therefore NOT allow me to book a refundable ticket with the credit.
- Also, i could not do as pshuang suggested as any unused portion of the credit would apparently still be attached to the original ticket and would expire with it.

So, I had to book a legit flight - I ended up booking a flight home for Thanksgiving... almost a year in advance. If there's any way to extend the credit, I couldn't get them to give. I was lucky they extended it a couple days so I didn't lose it altogether. I think the year expiration is complete ......... If anyone else has different experience, feel free to keep posting.

Thanks again for the help.