“Hey, you take your chances when the airline says ‘Either 4 people take the $800 voucher + hotel, or we’ll just randomly pick 4 people off this flight’”
Did that also include another plane ticket is what I’m wondering? Or do those people lose the plane ticket they paid for?
You get another ticket for a later flight, but that $800 is definitely NOT worth $800. It's UAL Monopoly money - "street value" probably about $200.