I'm sorry if this question has been discussed, but I searched the threads and didn't find any discussion of it:

Last year, I status-matched from DL PM to CO PL for several reasons, and am happy with the decision. As a result, I didn't even qualify for FO on DL for the coming year and would be lucky not to find myself entirely sans DL status on March 1.

However, I'm booking a European trip with a friend for mid-March, and am debating between purchasing a few intra-Europe flights on Malev or AF/Czech. Malev is cheaper and slightly more convenient, but, if I had status attached to the SkyTeam rez, I could enjoy lounge access and the other SkyTeam Elite perks, and would go for that option instead.

My question is, if I book the reservation in February, with my DL PM status still current, would that status be retained on my reservation and appear on my boarding passes for things like lounge and other priority access?

I called the Platinum Desk twice to ask. The first agent, speaking about two weeks ago, said the status on the rez would reflect the date of purchase; yesterday, another agent said the status on the reservation would be that of the date of travel, as I would have expected.

I assume the latter agent was correct and that a March SkyTeam flight would show me to have no status, but I wanted to confirm with anyone here who knew.

Any experience with this issue? Thanks.