Hi FT, lucky to find this community & useful thread! Regards from Finland.

Got a $1000 DV voucher last january for bumping MIA-CDG-HEL flight. Didn't know anything about vouchers and the AA agents at MIA told me I can use it on "any Oneworld flight", so I figured I'd fly from Finland to Australia for my exchange studies in Jan 2016.

Turns out the agents at MIA forgot to mention the flights apparently need to be via USA, which I've recently gathered from phoning AA reservations and studying this thread.

I have a couple of plans here to utilise the voucher, as I don't have time or money to take a trip to the States before the Aussies & voucher expiration.

Options:
1. Use voucher to buy flights for friends or family
2. Buy cheapest flight available -> receive new residual voucher of almost $1000 with another year until expiration
3. Reserve flights for a trip to the States within one year from now after my trip to down under

As there are more experienced flyers here, I'd like to ask if you see any preferences regarding those plans or possible hazards I haven't come to think of? For example, are my policy assumptions up to date? Rez agent on phone 2 days ago claimed that voucher needs to be used for outbound flight before expiration while sources here indicate otherwise, for example.

Cheers!