Depending on how much you will fly this year on UA, E+ access may too expensive of an option. I'll say that E- isn't so bad, as long as the seat next to you is empty. You also may get to interact with non frequent fliers and hear their interesting stories. While waiting at the gate, it's more fun to chat with non frequent fliers flying for family or vacation reasons. "Oh we're flying to Roanoke to see our daughter's new baby". Airports are great places to interact with strangers. Most of them are truly friendly and reflect the faces of America, and it beats flipping open my laptop to do things that I could do at home.