It's been a bit of an adventure today trying to redeem a DBC voucher I got back in the U.S. a few months ago. Perhaps my little experience can save others some time, or at least set the right expectations.

I live in London, and had just arrived back from a trip on Qantas into T4. I had made UA reservations earlier that day via the 1K line for a friend to use my DBC voucher so we could holiday together when I'm back in the States later this year.

I hoofed it over to T3 with the voucher. Simple procedure ... or so I thought. First, the woman at the UA ticketing office had never seen one of these. Not a huge surprise, I suppose, considering they're only issued in the U.S. After much reading and debating with a supervisor, she comes back and tells me that she cannot issue the ticket. Apparently, it is "redeemable only in the United States." (In fact, she points to where it actually says this on the cert in black and white!) The supervisor comes over and he is very apologetic, but he says there is nothing he can do as the system won't allow them to issue the tickets from LHR.

Okay, fine, I'll do Ticket by Mail. So I call the 1K desk back to set this up. Simple procedure ... or so I though. Apparently, Ticket by Mail for the DBC Free Voucher for someone with a different last name now requires a copy of my ID, the passenger's ID as well as the voucher, of course. This must be a new rule as I've never had to send in copies of IDs with the voucher before.

What a pain! But it'll get done.