Pitfalls of splitting reservations for CPU upgrades

Assume their are two tickets in a reservation.  Booked and flown by person with status who is eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades (CPU) and the other person has no status.

Upon checking in electronically, it will ask if you want to split the reservations for CPU purposes.  If you choose to do so, there are several downsides:

• $5 credit for united.com TravelBank club (requires yearly one-time payment to enroll) will be applied for one ticket, not both.  It is possible to request the other ticket be credited.
• If a flight is delayed/cancelled, the systems will automatically rebook for the person with status - even putting you on a codeshare flight.  If the goal is to get to the destination within a few hours of the originally scheduled time, this is beneficial.  Unfortunately, the system will not prioritize the person without status, and they will be on their own.  On a heavy weather day, this could be a big problem because the two fliers have a good chance of being split-up, with one suffering an overnight stay.  This is obviously not acceptable for most couples or parents flying with children.

If you are flying into weather problems (winter east coast storms can cause significant ripple effects with planes and crews), consider carefully if you should not split the records for CPU purposes.  While you may forgo an upgrade, you will have a better chance of arriving on time.