Thanks,

I've found a considerable spanner in the works for my UA plan as I need to be able to access a US credit card to reserve a E+ seat at booking otherwise I've got to hope for a decent E+ seat at check-in which isn't going to happen as the seat map shows E+ seat on the side of the plane pretty much gone so expect them all to have gone bar the 5 in the middle which I don't really want.

Would be nice to spend a day in New York but need to be in San Francisco on the Friday night.

Think I might go for EDI-EWR-SFO. IIRC I can get a credit of most of the fare towards a future flight on CO if I cancel it in the event some nice award availability comes up a bit closer to fly date.

Thanks for all the advice though, really appreciated. ^