so, my fiancee and i are going to be flying from southern california back to PA for the 4th of july holiday. will be in PA for about two weeks or so...

i'm premier silver (also w/ united CC), she has no status...we've already booked the flight out and were planning to use miles to fly back, since the cost of two round-trip tickets coast-to-coast appeared (and still appears) to be absurd wrapped around the 4th of july holiday. however, now rather than flying out of a larger airport and using a saver award for each of us, i'm considering flying out of a smaller airport much closer to friends and family and paying for one ticket and using a full-price award for the other. it'll cost a bit more, but save us some hassle trying to find a ride to the airport (and still not cost as much as two round-trip tickets would have).

anyway, here are my questions (this is my first year as premier so i'm not sure how this all works)...

1) if i book award travel, how does that affect E+ seating at check-in?

2) if i book them separately, how do i (can i?) still make sure she gets E+ as my companion?

3) if i book them separately, how do i (can i?) still make sure she gets her free bag as my companion?

are there any other caveats / gotchas i should watch out for in trying to sort this out? thanks in advance for any help you all can give me!