Hello Everyone:

As some of you might have experienced before, booking a flight on UA.com (or UA in general) is always an adventure -- nothing works consistently.

In either case, UA almost always prioritizes in selling you their operated flights and at times, defeating the whole purpose of an airline alliance.

Help me understand if this is a proper work-around and legal:

For example, when I book a flight to Europe (say Germany or Austria) from LAX, United almost always tries to sell their LAX to LHR flight (their metal). If not available, UA almost always routes me through SFO (LAX-SFO-FRA), again on their metal. Never would United sell a Lufthansa flight (2 daily non-stops LAX to FRA and 1 daily to MUC), despite the fact that UA codeshares on all LH flights from LAX (UA XXXX).

According to a UA call center agent, they're "only allowed to sell United metal, on a UA 016 stock"....which is pretty much a crappy explanation.

When I log in to UA.com, and select MULTI-CITY, I enter LAX to MUC as first flight, and then MUC to VIE as the second flight. Instantly, UA.com shows me the non-stop LH flight from LAX (as a UA codeshare), and then the 2nd flight (either UA codeshare or LH/OS, doesn't matter).

Question -- is this a proper workaround? The whole purpose is to book this through UA (due to 016 PQD requirements). Would luggage be tagged all the way to VIE, despite the fact that I'm booking 2 separate flights (in a multi-city setting)? Does this make sense? Any potential problems?

Also, both flights show 100% of PQD, PQS, and PQM -- I'm not worried about that.

Thank you for your input.