Thanks for all your feedback. I am tending towards not doing the drive at this point, not only because 5-6 hours of driving would be too much for me, but also because my whole itinerary is up in the air. I am having no luck so far upgrading my transpacific flights (HKG-JFK and SFO-HKG on UA, using LH miles, but I guess that's for another board).

By the way, what's IMO?

Thanks again.