On my way back from South America we were upgraded on the flight Bogota-Frankfurt despite being on an SAS issued Lufthansa award. I went by the philosophy that I should show my Senator Card to anyone who wanted to look at it and make those who didn't want to, take note as well.
It almost worked in Bangkok for the Thai award flight back to Sydney. I wanted to change the seat assignment that had been issued in FRA and flashed my Senator Card. When the boarding passes came out ther was a little box That had 'D UP' printed in it which i presume was a cue to the check-in agent to consider a Business class upgrade. she looked at the pass, looked at the ticket and then rang a superviser - the conversation was in Thai. when she gave me the passes the 'D UP' had been scribbled out.
It does show though that FF status does count for something across the STAR Alliance partners. No points from the trip though.