Originally Posted by
villox
My recent experience is that if you are waitlisted with an instrument, you will not be offered a choice - it will split automatically when you check in. (it won't split if all the flights you are checking in for have cleared).
You would need to call in and cancel the waitlist before checkin.
However, to address the OP's concern - since the bookings were done one-way, the outbound is not impacting the inbound at all.
If I were the OP, i'd let it split - in terms of IRROPs, the non-elite is now a J customer - not much "bad" could really happen since you're flying with that person anyways. At worst, an auto rebook on separate flights can easily be handled.