I certainly agree that this should be the case whenever flying on a codeshare flight, but that second woman I spoke with insisted that this would not be the case because the flight is not operated by CO or one of the qualified partners on their new magic list.

At any rate, I have now booked my return flight on VS (as CO4417) due to scheduling issues, and I certainly have my fingers crossed that this will work the way it's supposed to. I just find the whole thing to be a bit bizarre.