Welcome to Flyertalk FlyingPixie, welcome to the BA forum, and I hope you are enjoying the lovely evening that we seem to have in the North East tonight (at least at the northern end of it!).

I think you have had some good answers here and basically if you should be OK on the questions posed. If the check in is at Newcastle then there are only a few desks - and rarely much of a queue - so I don't see you have much of an issue there anyway.

It seems like you have already got your tickets booked, but one option would be World Traveller Plus on that sector, since the two of you could have a pair of seats to yourselves, a reasonable amount of leg room and improved catering. On a day flight to New York, if you chose your aircraft carefully, then as a pair of travellers this could work out quite well - if there is something good to watch on the IFE the flight will be over quite quickly. I don't think you would feel to crammed in. Then there are some day flights from New York to London back too - accepting that the overnight flights are a different proposition in some ways. Worth thinking about anyway, and if you want an excuse then think about booking Boston, Toronto or Montréal since these flights are even shorter.