Booking reward flight with paid tickets?

[ColonelHathi]

I have enough miles to qualify for a RT fare to MCO on Delta, but we'd have to book DH, DS and DD, so they would be on separate reservations, right? Has anyone done this? We did cash and miles last trip and it was really a hassle with baggage fees getting waived etc., we had to manually checkin at the airport each time. This time we would just pay the baggage fees, but I am worried about possible flight cancellations? How is that handled with reward travel? Is it too risky? Any thoughts on how we can all get on the same reservation, or if that is possible?

TIA!