Originally Posted by MarkXS

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The only benefit CO has taken away from other Skyteam airline Elites is free 1st/2nd bag checking. And that is not a Skyteam-mandated benefit. CO didn't do that until Delta/NW stopped giving the benefit to CO (and other ST) elites.

You still get all the mandated ST benefits if your elite status is properly updated in the reservation. Right up through the final CO flight of 10/24/2009. If your ST level allows it, you should be able to check in at First/Business counters, get EliteAccess priority boarding, Skyteam yellow priority bag tags on appropriate itineraries, etc.

BTW, there's a huge page on the alliance change on CO's website, linked both from the "Alliance Update" important notice on their home page, and for over a year from their airline partner page.

Sorry you got bad information from one CO rep. But that doesn't mean CO has started shafting ST elites. Sounds like that one rep had the same attitude/knowledge that all of Delta's offshore call center used to have when I tried to explain that NW (pre-merger) and CO were partner airlines and I wanted to put my NW or my CO FF# into a DL reservation.