The United flights on United metal aren't really that price - it factors in your flying LH on the return, which is an inferior hard product when compared with Polaris and Delta One. Dates are flexible - leaving mid-to-late June, returning roughly nine days later. My sister and niece will be traveling from IAH. I may fly with them from IAH, if needed to force a PP upgrade. Otherwise, I will be flying from DEN. I didn't see any real difference between IAH and DEN on United metal. Choosing the LH flights on the way back did make a huge difference in the fare. Like $10k. Picked a few return dates in July and got similar fares across the board.

LH metal returning:


UA Metal

Seems like waiting a few months is the way to go if I want to fly UA.