Running into an issue trying to upgrade my wife and I sju-mia-lax-pvg and return. Both were waitlisted with roughly 20 seats avail in the cabin, the number of available seats has been whittled down pretty thoroughly over the last couple weeks though the outbound is still around 10 the return has only about 5 remaining, just over a week until outbound leg.

A couple agents I've spoken to have said they think that the seats are swus that are clearing but that aa is releasing only 1 at a time hence skipping us. Both have advised not splitting the res saying my wife would fall to the bottom of the list due to no status. I've searched the thread but am not clear on if that would actually happen, can anyone confirm that she would fall or if she'd keep her spot from my status.

Also apparently we cleared on the Mia-lax leg even though I hadn't waitlisted us for that flight, just the internationals to make sure they would clear then apply for the rest, what happens now if our lax-pvg doesn't clear, will it affect our regular upgrade chances on the domestic legs?
Cheers