When we went to England last fall, we volunteered to be bumped onto a different flight, and were given travel credits. Awesome, right? Yeah. Except there's always a catch.

We're going to a wedding in New York in May, so we thought great, perfect timing. I checked on the United website and found a pretty good fare, so we'd only have to pay a little bit after using the credits. But of course, you can't actually use the credits with the website. And when you call on the phone, you can't get the web fare. The next lowest fare was $200 more. Hello.

We switched our dates around and managed to get a pretty reasonable fare after all, and then it turns out you have to either go to the airport within the next 24 hours, or mail the vouchers in the next 24 hours. You don't even give them the information over the phone. It makes me so mad. Why can't we use the web?

It's totally great we're getting a nearly free trip to New York, don't misunderstand me. It just irritates me that they make it seem like it's a blank check, when really it's not.