Elite status belongs to you personally and your Elite card proves it.

Star Alliance and airline elite benefits are available to you as long as you are in possession of a boarding pass on a *A flight (not counting company policy exceptions for non-revs who also happen to have earned status as well).

Where you might run into trouble is with benefits that are tend to be managed via computer databases, primarily waitlists, op-ups, and IROPS protection.

If you want the best of almost all worlds, you can simply leave the account number associated with your elite status until the last moment and have the number changed at the gate (preferably not during the boarding process itself!).