Trying to figure out the best strategy here. We've got the following booked for our honeymoon:

AKL - MEL (QF J)
Departs AKL 12pm, Arrives MEL 3pm

MEL - NRT (JL J)
Departs MEL 1205am Arrives NRT 9am

Here is where it gets tricky the first two flights (above) are on the same PNR (AA award). We are then connecting to another JL flight on an AS award:

NRT - ORD (JL F)
Departs 10:50am

What is my best strategy here? Obviously the ideal outcome is for it to be checked all the way from AKL to ORD but we definitely need them checked MEL - ORD in order to eliminate any connection issues.

Given the 9 hour layover at MEL, would QF short-check to MEL? I'm pretty certain that JL would be willing to check across PNRs since MEL - NRT - ORD is on all JL metal (and is J --->F) but I'm concerned that QF is going to throw a wrinkle in our plans here.

Thoughts?