IME, It can be enough that the FF# is in the system, even if you are not carrying the actual card.
My new card had not been dispatched to me when I checked in at CAN once, and I was a bit nervous how it would pan out as the formal rule is "present the card to get the perk". The extremely proffesional CA quickly summed up all allowances on the booking (1 C ticket, 2 Y and 1 burgundy card) without me even saying a word. YMMV, but I found QR doing a nice job on this.