Status Based on Date of Booking or Flight?
 

I'm sorry if this question has been discussed, but I searched the threads and didn't find any discussion of it:

Last year, I status-matched from DL PM to CO PL for several reasons, and am happy with the decision. As a result, I didn't even qualify for FO on DL for the coming year and would be lucky not to find myself entirely sans DL status on March 1.

However, I'm booking a European trip with a friend for mid-March, and am debating between purchasing a few intra-Europe flights on Malev or AF/Czech. Malev is cheaper and slightly more convenient, but, if I had status attached to the SkyTeam rez, I could enjoy lounge access and the other SkyTeam Elite perks, and would go for that option instead.

My question is, if I book the reservation in February, with my DL PM status still current, would that status be retained on my reservation and appear on my boarding passes for things like lounge and other priority access?

I called the Platinum Desk twice to ask. The first agent, speaking about two weeks ago, said the status on the rez would reflect the date of purchase; yesterday, another agent said the status on the reservation would be that of the date of travel, as I would have expected.

I assume the latter agent was correct and that a March SkyTeam flight would show me to have no status, but I wanted to confirm with anyone here who knew.

Any experience with this issue? Thanks.

Although I would expect the status on any DL reservation to reflect what it is on the day of travel, it is possible that your status on a partner airline's reservation could continue to be what it was at time of purchase. I doubt they sync them in real time. But even if the reservation had the correct status, the overseas lounges often want to see a physical card, and your plat card would show expired.

Unfortunately I have no direct experience with such a status change between purchase and flight, except on CO. In that case, if you got an upgrade prior to your status going away, the upgrade stuck. But day of flight perks reflected your status on that day.

And even that policy is different on DL. If you get an upgrade and then lose status (so only applicable to flights the first few days of March), they send you back down to Y before check-in.

Just to update, I've gotten back from my European tour, within which I took AF from CDG-PRG and BUD-CDG. In both directions, the BP showed "Flying Blue Elite Plus" with my DL number. The BPs both scanned for lounge access, including in a Malev-operated lounge in BUD.

I did not re-qualify for status on DL, and these flights were in March. YMMV.

Very interesting. I have an AF itinerary purchased as an FO that I'll be a GM by the time I fly it. Should have the GM card for lounge access, but thinking once I make GM I might call AF and ask them to remove and reinsert my SkyMiles number just to be sure the status shows up correctly.

Do we have any more recent info on this? Booked as FO, traveling as GM. Itinerary online shows FO. Do I need to call to have them remove and reinsert?