Questions and advice please.
Wife and I booked in PE for flights in March, same PNR.
Wife currently no NZ Status but will have EP November 2018.
Me NZ GE currently and re-qualified until November 2019. RUs for current year are used up, will get two more in November.
My current Elite Partner (my mother) has qualified as NZ G in her own right and has two RUs that she will not use. She loses EP in November, but keeps Gold until June 2019.

Have already lodged an E AP upgrade for wife on outbound flight, did not clear right away. Did not have quite enough AP to upgrade myself as well, but will later on in November after more flights.

My thought is to use one of my mother's RU's to upgrade myself for the outbound, and to possibly cancel wife's E AP upgrade request and use both of Mum's RU's instead.
Will use my E RU's for the return.

What would be the priority ranking for all this?
If more info needed for accurate answers, please ask.
How is NZ at sticking to the upgrade priority protocol? Is it automated or subject to human intervention?!

TIA