I agree, it's a big pain. Especially since both jetBlue and Frontier offer redeyes to New York. For the last three years, I've taken an annual ski weekend (late flight out Thus or Fri, redeye back Sun or Mon) because my time is precious. I would have flown UA if possible, but since UA made it impossible, I flew B6 every time.

In any case, UA has abandoned the NYC market.