While this is correct, it is important to note when you book an award, your status is not shown. You can ask at check in or by telephone to have your status noted. Some agents will and some say they can't. (They can as I have had this done).
Although status is not shown on the boarding pass if you have an AE ticket, it is on file and it does appear on the manifest, so the crew should know from that.
It's also my anecdotal impression that the status of the person whose points were used for the ticket is associated with the file in some fashion. On a couple of occasions when a flight had gone IROPS, my daughter travelling alone has been helped out by a Concierge.