Jerseyguy,
I am in a similar situation. I am elite, wife is not. We are flying to RDU on same flight, but I am coming home earlier so we have 2 different reservations. Were you able to get the baggage fee waived for the non-elite passenger on the segments where you had an elite passager on the same flight but on a separate reservation? Anyone else with luck on this?

FWIW I did call elite desk to get our seats together in the preferred section and asked about getting the wife's baggage fees waived while she was on the phone. She said that my wife's fees would be waived if I didnt check in online and just showed my card at check-in. With some of the experiences posted on this thread and the now higher fees for paying for luggage at the airport as opposed at checkin online, I thought I would see if anyone has tried this recently before I took her word for it.

TIA