You need to realize that the "free round trip" voucher is capacity controlled much like a Dividend Miles award. It's on the part of the voucher that you sign and they retain when it's issued. The other option, as you said, is to use it for $$ off a published fare. Many fares you see on Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. are bulk or private fares only available through them. Usually the fare quoted by US Airways reservations is more but not by a whole lot.
I recently redeemed one of these vouchers for $$ off for travel this Thanksgiving. I knew that there wouldn't be any capacity controlled seats that weekend. The fare I saw on USAirways.com is what was quoted to me on the phone. Actually the fare was $409 which after taxes totaled $434. My voucher was for $400 so I had my credit card at the ready to pay the balance. I was never asked to pay anything additional!
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