US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - US Airways/Lufthansa economics

I have to fly from Germany to Africa on Lufthansa, and the flight I have to take is operated by Lufthansa. When I hunt around on the US Airways website, the flight comes up with one number as operated by Lufthansa and with another number as operated by United, even though it's the same flight. If I pick the United flight number, does United get any money? Regardless of which flight I pick, if I book it through the US Airways website (rather than through Travelocity or on lufthansa.com), does US Airways get any money? I'd much rather have some money flowing to US Airways or United rather than Lufthansa if possible. Is it possible to book a US Airways award with Dividend Miles on a flight operated by Lufthansa but with a United flight number?Thanks.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NYCommuter:
I have to fly from Germany to Africa on Lufthansa, and the flight I have to take is operated by Lufthansa. When I hunt around on the US Airways website, the flight comes up with one number as operated by Lufthansa and with another number as operated by United, even though it's the same flight. If I pick the United flight number, does United get any money? Regardless of which flight I pick, if I book it through the US Airways website (rather than through Travelocity or on lufthansa.com), does US Airways get any money? I'd much rather have some money flowing to US Airways or United rather than Lufthansa if possible. Is it possible to book a US Airways award with Dividend Miles on a flight operated by Lufthansa but with a United flight number?Thanks.</font>


If you book the flight through the US Airways website, US will get a (relatively small) commission of some sort from the carrier whose code you book the flights under.

The operating carrier will normally get the lion's share of the fare, whichever code you use. Booking an LH flight under a UA flight number will get UA some revenue, though not a huge amount.

One thing to bear in mind if booking the codeshares is that things like seat assignments and changes may not always go as smoothly. For instance, if I do this the other way round, and book a UA operated flight under an LH code, LH gets some money, but I lose the chance to reserve an economy plus seat until the day of travel.

From a revenue perspective, booking a UA codeshare through the US website will likely net both US carriers some cash (with US receiving its cash from UA).

Thanks! I just figure that I really like US Airways and would like to help it not go under.