Carrier iPhone 16 ATT Upgrade Swap Order of Operations

[Timenprayer]

Going to upgrade from iPhone 15 PM to iPhone 16 PM on ATT. My line of service has a current installment agreement on it already. My wife's line is upgrade eligible. (I will be trading in my wife's old iPhone 14 to get the ATT carrier deal $1000 off over 3 years.) So we need to swap equipment, and this will be my first time doing an equipment swap with eSim. Looking for a little help and a suggested order of how I go about doing the steps to minimize headaches. I'm also getting a new Apple Watch on launch day as a bonus mix-in. I want to try and avoid having to go into the ATT Store on Launch Day.

Here is what I think for my launch day plan (will do all backups to iCloud on Thursday night, so devices will be backed up).

1. Power on new iPhone 16, activate the iPhone 16 on my wife's line of service. Bypass pretty much all setup and customization and sync/restore no content to the device. Delete the eSIM with my wife's line of service from the iPhone 16 and factory reset the device.
2. Setup new iPhone 16 and transfer my eSIM to the iPhone 16 during device setup. Restore apps and content using iCloud backup.
3. Remove eSIM from my old iPhone.

Is all of that correct? What are the best steps to getting my new Apple Watch set up? Do I have to first set up the old Apple Watch on the new iPhone 16, unpair, and then setup the Apple Watch Series 10?

Also - is there any way to keep my wife's iPhone from losing cellular service once I activate her line of service on the new iPhone 16?

Thanks for any and all help.

The older I get the more technology leaves me behind.

 

[carsonnaj]

Sounds like you are doing a cross upgrade. Using your wifes phone as a trade in to take advantage of the promotion for iPhone 16 Pro. I've done this many times and I am here to tell you there is nothing to worry about. Once you get the new phone call AT&T and explain and they will successfully switch numbers to whatever phone you want to use.