I bought a $200 UA gift certificate about 10 days ago so I could [hopefully] get the $200 back from Amex, since I have Platinum card. I purchase it, and never get a confirmation e-mail. I see a "pending" $200 charge on my Amex for four days, then it goes away, turns out UA didn't issue it? So I try again, and this one gets e-mailed, but this time, I can't use it when I try a few days later!!! So yesterday, I spend 45 min on the phone with web support, and they need to do it manually, for a $25 fee (). Finally they agree to waive the fee, and all is allegedly done. The flight was booked yesterday, through web support, for a flight tomorrow. Of course, I don't get confirmation e-mail, and the UA website says my ticket hasn't been paid for. So, after 45 min on the phone, I get transferred to the 1K desk, because apparently they are the only ones that can fix the problem. But of course, they can't fix it themselves, they need to put me on hold while some other desk fixes it.

Total time wasted on purchasing and redeeming gift certificate - almost 3 hours of aggravation.

Also, how much comp. should I be entitled to for this debacle? This was a very straightforward process - booking flight from IAH to LGA, and using gift certificate. no fancy itinerary, nothing!