FANTASTIC trip report!!
On a final note, today I took a look out of curiosity and found that UA's five JFK-SFO non-stops all ran yesterday, ranging from 20 to 50 minute delays. Interesting that both AA and DL were quick to blame their problems on UA when they obviously had nothing to do with it...
My only guess is that people booked on AA and DL rather than UA because of fear of cancelled flights. Tho I highly doubt it would be overbooked with that many pax scared off of UA.
IIRC from my last trip at JFK, you can't cross the highway that comes in between T8 and T1 (help me out NYers...JFK Expressway? Van Wyck Expressway?). Did they put up pedestrian bridges, am I totally wrong, or did you walk the LONG way around?