Originally Posted by moondog
AFICT, the only case in which validation would be feasible is intra-alliance/partnership because no companies generally don't reveal info about their best customers to their competitors, if they can help it. Furthermore, since intra-alliance comps are kind of taboo, I'm inclined to conclude that they don't verify anything.
I mostly agree with you; the one nit I'll pick is the intra-alliance comp (I'm in the midst of completing an intra-alliance challenge right now, so they do happen). While alliance members no doubt can't see explicit details of an FF record for another airline's elite, they must at least know the general level (e.g., SkyTeam Elite, SkyTeam Elite Plus) of staus in order to know when to allow assignment of premium seats, etc. In some cases alliance staus reflects directly to a given airline status level (e.g. ST Elite+ means Plat on US domestics); in others, it's a bit nebulous (If I'm ST Elite on DL, can NW tell whether I'm Silver or Gold, or just that I'm ST Elite?). Regardless, an alliance member should be able to easily verify whether or not a person has elite status on another alliance airline, although I agree they almost certainly can't look deeper into the picture (leisure fare vs. full fares, etc.).