In the past, I've used this trick: If I want to get a *A award for my friend without an airport visit or a paper ticket, I have done this (worked twice in the past):

1. Use ua.com to book and ticket a UA-only award, same region and class or service that I want. City pairs don't matter, it is the region and class that count.

2. Once the electronic ticket has been issued, call and change the itin. On the change, you can now use *A airlines, they will just reissue the UA-only ticket for the new itin.

For example, I want to book SFO-KUL on *A in biz, I just find a UA-only itin with award seats in biz on any date to the pacific (destination PEK for example). Once the electronic ticket is issued, I call and change it to SFO-KUL (via PEK on AirChina or via NRT on ANA or via SIN on SQ, for example). The new ticket will also be electronic because it was exchanged for an electronic one.

There really is no "funny-business" going on because obviously my identity is verified on the original ticket, as I did it via UA.COM. UA is not really trying to stop you from issuing *A award tickets in someone else's name, their system was just to archaic to do it. So getting the award ticket done electronic (all UA) in the first place then changing it is the best solution, up until now, to avoiding in airport visit or a paper ticket.

This has worked both times I have done it in the past. Of course, this works best if you are a 1K with no change fee for routing and airline changes.

But glad to hear you don't have to do this anymore, and they have a procedure in place to verify your identity over the phone.