Originally Posted by
yvrgary
Heck, you'd probably save almost a thousand dollars if you paid for tickets to SFO and flew United from there.
True, albeit at the cost of 5+ hours of travel time plus the hassle of dealing with US CBP, the risk of a connection, the issues with a connection built from two different PNRs etc...
Then again, I'm more sensitive to time and hassle than dollars, but the OP may feel differently.
Although I do feel like that may be a strategy that's best reserved for someone with a bit more experience, and possibly FF status, than OP might have.