I'm officially washing my hands of them!

I called them to let them know of the UA flights you mentioned above & they'd have E+, etc, etc, etc. And they've decided to stick w/ LH E- because they 'want the simplest connection' due to Tony's computer equipment/fear of it getting lost on multiple connections. I'm not going to waste any more time or expensive phone calls giving them better options. And - I won't listen at all if they complain about LH E- the next time I see them. That will definitely be a 'talk to the hand' situation!

Again, thanks so much to all for the input & offers of help! Cheers.