Originally Posted by
Dr. HFH
Gardy's right on. Remember, col747uk, AA will, indeed, be interested in booking the CX flights as codeshares because such a booking results in a referral fee (read hard cash) from CX to AA. Of course, that works in reverse, too. CX usually lists much less availability in premium cabins for codeshares for the same reason.
No refereral fee. Instead AA buys the seat from CX as a normal codeshare, and sells the seat to you, getting the sector revenue from the OWE ticket. The Atlantic/Pacific sectors get a high percentage of each ticket (circa 20% though the exact number is a trade secret). Whether that is profitable for AA depends upon the terms of their codeshare agreement (so the profit margin varies with route; they may lose money on the CGK-HKG sector for example).