Too Good To Be True

Dear Department of Transportation,

On October 8, 2010, my husband I volunteered to be bumped from an American Airlines flight.  American compensated us each with a flight voucher for $300.  American said the only way to redeem the voucher is to make an itinerary online, place a hold on it, and then call into their call center to complete the ticketing process.  Because I am calling into the ticketing center, it costs me $20.  I redeemed a portion of my voucher and will use the remainder on another flight.  This means that the flight voucher I was given is really only worth $260 because I'm forced to pay service fees in order to redeem it.  How is this legally allowed?

Your pal,
Jill