Originally Posted by intuition

This is why it actually is clever to recognize the tier member in the first place:
"Welcome back Mr FF! As our platinum member you can have a drink for free, what would you like?". Or when serving, saying "that is free of charge as you are platinum member". Again, not with the purpose to make pax A "look good" to the crowd, but to pre-emptively explain why pax A got a special service.
The newspaper they usually hand over discretely, but if another passenger asks "can I have one too?" they should say something to make pax B understand why pax A got it for free.