I do EXACTLY what you said -- I have bought a number of tickets from Continental's web site and specified my Northwest Worldperks number so that I get Northwest credit for the flight. The only downside is that I don't get the 1,000 online booking bonus that I'd get if I specified a Continental number.

online booking-earning miles (using status)on partner?
 

I am wondering if anyone knows... if one can book online with one airline-say continental (to get that 4000 AMEX bonus)-and then insert in your elite status number on another airline, in this case NW, either after ticketing or at the airport so as to get an upgrade and accumulate the miles and status bonus on that airline's partner.? same question applies for all the various partner relationships...

(I am new so hope i didn't miss this before)

chow

I know (only) that I can always change my-ff-program, at least until check-in.

So travelover, if you entered a continental number when you booked the ticket, would you get the continental miles? Then if as Rudi says you changed to NW before/at checkin, would you then be able to get the 4,000 continental miles and accumulate actual/elite miles on NW? Or would changing to NW then prevent the Continental miles from going through?

alternately, if you accumulate the miles on CO, would they upgrade you when you show them your gold/platinum NW card, or would you have to switch to WP for miles to get upgraded? Anyone try this before?

Thanks all