If this has been discussed/answered before, please refer me to the appropriate thread/post. Thanks.
In the general case, there are three airlines potentially involved in any single flight on which you earn miles:
- The airline you're flying with
- The airline you're earning miles with for this flight
- The airline with whom you earned your current status for the alliance that airlines #1 and #2 belong to
(I suppose with code-share flights there can be four airlines involved but I'm ignoring that level of complexity.)
In most cases, I imagine that airlines #2 and #3 are the same but my query relates to the situation where they're different.
I've recently divorced QF and am earning all my OW miles on Asia Miles now (I've done the same for Star, divorcing UA and switching to KrisFlyer). Since I'm starting from scratch I have no special status in Asia Miles. However, as I'm QF Platinum and hence oneworld Emerald for the rest of this year, I can still use CX First Class check-in and lounges, but in order to do so I have to show my QF card with the little Emerald icon on it. Swiping that card enables them to generate a lounge invitation for me but I get the impression that that action also overwrites my Asia Miles membership number for the current flight and they have to manually set it back again for miles-earning purposes. If I don't show my QF card, I will just be told to go to the economy or business class check-in as appropriate, and I'll be given an invitation only for the business class lounge (assuming I'm flying business class).
This rigmarole wasn't necessary when I earned QF miles on CX, as my QF/OW status seemed to be automatically communicated to CX.
This raises a question:
Is it possible for an airline to store your alliance status separately from your status with that airline, and to be aware of it when granting privileges such as lounge access and waitlist priority? Or is presenting the card from the other airline with whom you earned that status the only way to communicate that information to the airline you're flying with (assuming they're different airlines)?