Originally Posted by sweetsleep

To OP,
Check to see if the credit card used to book the flights on award travel has a perk that will reimburse for fees(this includes bag fees, lounge day passes, food and beverage onboard, etc) incurred on various airlines-ie United, AA, Delta, etc and if you still have not designated an airline you can put United as the airline so you will be reimbursed up to 150-200 US dollars per year.
Hoping that one of you has this perk and once the card is presented at the airport AND you have previously designated UA as the airline for reimbursement of fees you should be good to go. You can also change the airline annually!
Good luck.