I wanted to mention that my DH flew out of WAW to the states on AF last year. He has FO Delta, and had to fight with the gate agent to let him check two bags.

I had printed out copies of all the information and the fact of his silver status and he had all that with him. But the agent didn't want to do it. But my DH insisted, showed him the papers, and he finally let him have the two checked bags.

It is a real help to us as we are trying to get college kids' stuff back to them in the states (we live here but are Americans, so most of our kids' stuff is here.). A piece of luggage at a time will do it, but every bag helps!

Except for actually transporting "stuff", however, we do fly just with carry-ons for our travel needs. It's a lot easier.