I am trying to book an award ticket using miles for Mrs FreeLunch and myself.

I have lifetime gold status and about 190k miles.
My wife has no status and 90k miles.

The flights that are available are:
1) Outbound: 25k mile first saver (12.5k coach is not available)
2) Return: 25k anytime coach (25k first saver is not available)

So, my question, is what's the best way to book these award tickets, since wouldn't it generally be better to use up my wife's miles first? Since if we need to book an overseas/higher mileage award flight, we have more mileage accumulated in one account. I want to use her miles first. We will be checking bags, so we want to avoid baggage fees. I thought I read that if a non elite uses their miles then you have to pay baggage fees. I don't know if that's trumped since we are flying together and I'm lifetime gold.

I also read in another post that the 25k anytime coach offers free baggage since it's counted as a Y fare. I have about 20 upgrade certs just sitting there, so I wonder if I could use those too?

thanks in advance...