Originally Posted by
exwannabe
Don't forget that there is a risk of some losing those EC seats if you split and a round of musical chairs follows.
+1, and hit or miss as to whether a phone agent will restore the EC seats for more than one companion if they're even still available after an equip change.
Still, I'd vote for a split, but I tend to wait until about 7 days before departure before splitting the PNR. Allows as much time as possible for equip/schedule/whatever changes but still gets me split off ahead of the mythical UG window.