I think you may be right.
I have just checked in at SFO. This time I checked in at the First/Business desk instead of the kiosk. Again the boarding pass was issued without my OW Sapphire status.
Since I am in the First cabin for this flight I didn't bother to ask the guy at the desk to correct it because all I care about is getting some bin space for my bag.
But when I checked into the admirals club the woman behind the desk there tore up my boarding pass and said "I have to give you a new one to reflect your status". Sure enough it has "Sapphire" now printed on it.
*shrugs*
I can understand her doing this if I was flying Y, since I'd theoretically get priority boarding. Otherwise I don't really see the difference. The FAs certainly aren't going to treat me any differently, are they?
