I think I've just about read every thread I could find and have a few questions about award bookings and United seats in general. It took my a few years but my wife and I finally acquired enough points to reach my goal: fly in a premium cabin to Europe and back. The only other flying we do is on WN so this will be quite the experience.

In August, we are flying ORD-MUC in BusinessFirst and then FRA-ORD in GlobalFirst - both on a 777-200. After I booked the seats, I discovered threads about people getting downgraded from GlobalFirst to Economy because award tickets are at just about the top of the pecking order for getting downgraded. I'm sure these situations are more uncommon than common but of course I'm concerned that the flights I've waited so long for might end up being a bust. How common is it for people to get downgraded from BusinessFirst or GlobalFirst? Even if I were to receive compensation for a downgrade (I believe another thread said $1,000 each) and the miles for the difference between Economy and First (50,000 each), it would take a long time before we had enough points again to even attempt to fly in Business or First again.

On the way over, we are sitting in 6A and 6B based on advice I found on FT. Right now, we are sitting in 1A and 2A. Will that be awkward for a couple flying together? I figure most the flight will be spent watching TV, sleeping, having a meal, etc. but maybe 1A and 1C would be a better fit since we would be angled towards each other?

United gets quite the bad rap in all the reviews and forum posts I've read - from poor service to poor food to poor premium cabin seats - so I haven't set the bar too high for our experience but I still want to make sure all our work won't go to waste!