Originally Posted by
aacharya
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.
IME if the reservation is split as it was an upgrade the non-status member will
not be protected.
I was traveling with a friend on a joint reservation and had us both upgraded using my GPUs. The reservation was split (without me knowing) so when the IRROP happened I was protected in J for the next flight but she was not, and in fact ended up allocated a middle E- seat.
As I was first in line for the rebooking I was able to successfully negotiate her back into J (as someone from the flight decided not to the rescheduled flight) but we were not seated together.