Originally Posted by mad cow disease

Thought I would report on my experience with a UA voucher for a >24 hr flight delay. I wanted to book for a Air Canada direct flight (Canada to USA) in August vs. a United that takes me an additional four hours with a layover. Additionally the Air Canada flight was $50 cheaper than the United (~$295)

Booked dummy UA flight on the website using the voucher and additional $90 of "new" money. Wait until I get the eTicket confirmation, go onto the website, try to switch to the desired Air Canada flight. I get to select the flight I want, it confirms the price difference, including the refund of $50, but I click "Agree" and it spits back an error telling me to contact customer service. I go to try again online, the dummy flight has been canceled?

Called customer service, after 20 mins on hold turns out they can't book the cheaper Air Canada fare, so they transfer me to web customer service. I have to explain the whole issue all over again. After more time on hold, web CS says they can't book the fare I'm seeing on the website and says now the price is ~$280. So they will refund me $15 instead of the $52 or so I'm promised on the website...or I can try to book the fare and they will refund the dummy flight $ (obviously not an option).

Long story short, it takes another 45 minutes on hold and a variety of errors before they're able to push through the ticket on Air Canada. My fare ends up being ~$283 instead of $240, and it irks me that customer service somehow can't book the fares that show up on the website.

My take-away is that yes, you can book codeshare flights using UA vouchers, but it is a complete PITA. Any idea what might have happened? It all seemed to go well until that last step before confirmation. Would trying to book the flight at 12:00 AM have anything to do with it?