I thought I had better finally respond to the polite invitation which greets me whenever I visit this site and post a message. Thank you to all the contributors whose advice I have found very useful. I have learnt lots of useful stuff about seat selection, connections, PNRs, but most useful was the advice which enabled my wife and I to enjoy a trip to the Uk and back using our points, the return journey giving us our first experience in business class . We are now planning our next trip and have not yet accumulated the points to repeat the experience using points. Still finding great information to help us plan our self-funded trip.