Thanks all - I did look into the alternatives. In the end I went for the QR option outbound as the timings were quite favourable (1330 arrival at HAN), if not especially good value. I am sure it would have been fine going with HX, even if it had all gone wrong. KA was an appealing option, but the Mrs seems to like QR and decent tier point collection too, so that swayed it. I will be making the same journey again later in the year so will consider connecting on to KA in future.