Of course it was designed to do this. Am I supposed to just seethe in anger, throw my companion pass in the trash and start paying higher fares and baggage fees to United now? Or maybe they should go out of business as punishment for their system going down? They messed up, they offered something in return, in my case I'm happy with it. I was glad to see this thread yesterday, because it made me realize the perfect use for the voucher and discount code I had received. When I first got them I assumed I could only use them for myself, which would make almost useless to me.