Originally Posted by wanderlust4life

Sorry but sadly you have no chance whatsoever using SWUs. Lesson learned is to always rely on the flight codes for the original ticketed carrier no matter how they look when appearing on other airline streams. Qantas doesn't impose the restriction when you have an AA operated and marketed flight. They only impose the restriction for their coded flights and since all of the flights are QF coded which is the norm for any ticket booked via QF, they say "keep your hands off" to any other airline that tries to modify it.

AA always displays their AA flight number for AA operated flights when looking at tickets purchased through other airlines on the AA website/app. That doesn't mean that the selling inventory and code was originally AA. A very common mistake several people make is when they buy AA flights via Alaska. The Alaska website for a flight from SFO-LAX has an AS flight number but is operated by AA. Once you enter your FF number and purchase it, your AA account updates with that same flight but takes the disguise of the AA equivalent coded flight. This misleads people into thinking theyll be earning rates at the AA coded mileage rates when actually it'll be based on AS rates. Also, they dont get to benefit from upgrades etc due to the selling inventory being from AS.

I can't think of any reason why you'd book a QF ticket for AA flights except for needing the QF marketed segments and mileage credited at QF rates. AA and QF as well as AA and BA codeshare all over the place. Its essential to know what coded flight you are booking when making the payment. A quick phone call to the ticketing carrier's reservations department can confirm this. I hope the QF fare was lower than the AA fare and hence why you went the QF ticketing route. It would be a shame if they are the same price and all you needed was to book on AA.com or via a travel agent who could have picked and chosen a mixture of QF and AA flights for you.