Help/advice on changing a flight segment
 

I need some FT advice. Here's the facts and situation:

Mr. and Mrs. pinerd are travelling soon from SFO-ORD-YUL.
Mr. pinerd = UA Gold
Mrs. pinerd = UA Silver
We're currently on the same itinerary (which may get split with the PNR splitting...)

I just found out during my ORD-YUL segment, I need to be on an important phone call and thus cannot take that segment. I need to take a later segment that evening instead.

Some questions I have about what I need to do:
1) Can I do this SDC?
1a) If I do SDC, does Mrs. pinerd who is silver get it free since she's on my itin?
2) Should I split my segment and send Mrs. pinerd ahead and I take the later flight?
3) Should I do this ahead of time (i.e. now vs in 2 days)?

Any advice is much appreciated!

You can only SDC within 24 hours of your original flight.

If you and she are on the same PNR, both should get the same offer. But as a Gold, you may also be split off at check-in.

What does the Mrs wish to do? Will she be okay flying without you and going home/checking in a hotel, or would she rather wait at the airport?

If I were in that situation, I'd wait to T-24, check-in, and let it split - and then do SDC.

Thanks for the advice! The Mrs. is willing to do whichever is easiest. Yeah I'm worried about the dreaded split. But she's willing to sit at the airport with me or go first.