While UA should be able to tell she's elite, note that it can take longer for systems from partner carriers to recognize the status - its not necessarily real time. So just because it says elite on the AP site, does not mean that UA computers will see that immediately. If you don't have the card, one other way of showing can be to print out a screen shot of the Web page showing the elite status is there. May not work, but just may.

Lounge access will likely require a card, however.