Originally Posted by
boat9781
Yep, right prior to the merger United would offer $400 minimum in VDB vouchers. They were paper and required a trip to the airport to ticket if I recall. The few times I accepted a voluntary reroute prior to the merger, I was often rerouted / rebooked into first after negotiating with the gate agent.
Yes, it was the paper vouchers. It didn't necessarily require a trip to the airport - you could book (on the phone, IIRC), and then mail in the voucher to an office in Dearborn, MI IIRC. But you needed a couple of weeks at least before travel to do that. I always went to the airport because if there was ever a piece of mail that was bound to not make it to the destination, my guess is this would be it.
I remember ticketing at the airport though. Not possible to do anymore - it was allowed for a little bit after the merger as they transitioned off those, but then stopped allowing airport agents to ticket.
And yes, you could often rebook into F. I didn't VDB much, but remember pre-merger (or maybe it was shortly after) VDB'ing off the last flight of the night - asked agent if she could maintain my F seat (I was upgraded - CPU), and she booked me into full F class.