Ok, I don't know if this has been covered before, but I thought I would drop this note to unsuspecting folks. Since MR's have become my hobby, I have become a heck of a lot more particular of class of booking, and what that means to EQM.

So last night I was booking my flight for today (I am currently in lounge), and since I'm cheap, I sort by price on economy. And immediately I see AA flights connecting at LAX to QF flights. Not AA Codeshare.

So what's tricky is that on JFK/LAX/SYD, it's booked in O. Ok, that's fine. But the return is in Q. Ouch! For that long flight back, no EQM!!

So, I looked for a flight back that gave me EQM -- all $350 extra. So that would bring the total to $2k!

Going back to the JFK/LAX/SYD flight, I look for flights all on AA. Yeah, $100 more. Ok. And when on AA codeshare LAX/SYD and vice versa, both O and Q are a-ok!

So, moral of the story is, don't ever book AA flights without LAX/SYD on codeshare, you will get toasted on the EQM on the way back.

Thanks to FlyerTalk, this is the first time I looked at the booking class for the return!