Well, I called again this morning and just let the speaker phone play "Rhapsody in blue". It only took about 15 minutes to get a person. Sure enough I had to call because of the "different last name" issue. Agent asked me again that I was the account holder and I was giving the award to someone, then proceeded to verify the itinerary, ask again for my CC for the taxes and said the reservation will be sent to a different dept for ticketing within 7 business days and I would receive an e-mail confirmation. I asked if I needed to go to the airport to verify or sign something and the agent clearly said no. In any case I received the confrmed itinerary in about 2 hours, so it seems ticketed. I may call UA once more just to make sure it is ticketed and that I don't have to go to the airport to sign a bluey.

The only thing worse than this process is if I take my wife to the airport on departure day and she finds out the res was never ticketed and won't be able to fly so I better take the time to double check everything.

Thanks again to everyone for your replies and experiences.