Originally Posted by
pinniped
Couldn't you just route it through Chicago onto EI metal if you weren't concerned about E+ on the long-haul?
Or go DEN-(Europe)-DUB if you want E+ most of the way?
I'm not familiar with the pains of connecting in EWR to DUB (I just know I don't care for EWR in general), but it seems like that'd be an okay routing to get E+ for the entire trip.
You certainly could do a UA/EI trick DEN-ORD-DUB if you could find the Aer Lingus seats ex-ORD. OP said he'd located an ex-BOS RT that would work for him though, so that was the foundation I was looking at.
You suggested trying for an all-UA metal award, though, which means an EWR connection. EWR is IMO a high-risk transfer point in summer: too many flights scheduled for the prime transatlantic hours, endemic delays, some chance of your inbound flight being held at origin long enough to miss your second leg (this happens every day to Europe-bound pax all over the mid-Atlantic/northeast region connecting trying to get to EWR on UX). And I would take the EI A330 over the UA 757 any day, E+ notwithstanding.