Partner EQM on CO-present and future
 

Relatively new CO flyer here, previously with UA. 50% EQM on discounted economy fares (unless booked on continental.com) I have grudgingly come to accept. However, do I have it right that it is impossible to get 100% EQM on partner airlines when booking discounted economy fares, even when booked online (continental.com or partner web site)? And this is the case not only for all Skyteam partners but even their closest partner, NWA?

If this is the case, this is a real shortcoming of OP compared to UA MP. On UA, I could book a flight on most Star airlines and get 100% EQM.

Any sense of what will happen with this when CO switches to Star?

You are correct that there is no way to get 100% EQMs on several partners' lowest fare buckets, no matter where the booking occurs. No idea if this will extend to *A partners, too.

And United is actually similar in many ways. There are many fare classes on partners where earnings are limited. NH has a bunch of 50-70% fares, for example. TP also is very limited.

Yes, you are right. But the most important international and domestic partners, LH and US (in my opinion), generally had 100% EQM (a few gotchas with LH). If this discrepancy affects a significant proportion of economy fare buckets of the "key" (for CO) Star Alliance partners (LH, UA, US), this really devalues the partnership for CO flyers.

One more thing, I guess I am a bit surprised that given how tight CO and NWA were that there was this issue of it being impossible to get 100% EQM on NW. Hope this will be remedied with UA, but I am not holding my breath...