Thank you all for sharing your experiences ....
And the pointer to the DENIED-VDB profile ...

I'll assume that when I got my 300$ TC instead of the free ticket on a SFO-IAD flight it was just the SFO gate agent own initiative to offer TCs in a non standard amount (even though she commented that UA had changed policy and added that TCs were more flexible anyway)

Given the language of the profile about Free ticket being the Primary form of compensation : what latitude do GAs to give TCs if requested instead ?

My experiences with this have been mixed hence the question : some insist that the only thing they can do is the free ticket , some have told me to get the free ticket and take up the question with a customer service desk, some have issued TCs without push back, some even offered it ....

It looks like the profile language defines a primary but certainly not exclude TC alternatives