It all pays off...

What Ephraim called "the post of the year," has paid off.

I used my free ticket voucher and the 30,000 free miles I picked up thanks to the credit cards towards 4 tickets for flights to Minneapolis for my brother's wedding.

I had to use an add'l 20k miles I had and buy one outright ($321), but all in all, a good deal.

The only major problem was that I had a rookie representative when I was redeeming my voucher. I was on the phone with www.united.com for 50 minutes.

The whole time, warning bells were going off saying, "double and triple check everything."

And I am glad that I did, because despite NUMEROUS comments that I "want to be on EXACT same flight as my two other reservations [redeemed online w/miles], the rep SCREWED it up."

If I hadn't been watching, it would have been REALLY, REALLY bad. I tried to be nice, but after 50 minutes, I just lost it... I FINALLY got the email and looked at it and said, "Dammit, this is WRONG! I know you're learning the job, but I asked you, pleaded with you to please make sure we're all on the same flight." I feel bad that I was so strong in my voice, but you would expect that booking a flight...when I called up knowing the date, time, and flight number, would be pretty easy.

Anyway, all four of us are on the same flight.