An interesting thread. I have found that it is worth looking at the price of tickets via partner airlines as quite frequently the same flight can be cheaper e.g. Iberia, American, Finnair and BA. The searches generally tell you which of those airlines you are travelling on and quite regularly the partner airline is cheaper than the flight provider. For example I travelled last autumn to NZ in business out of Paris using Air France to Taipei and China Airlines Taipei to Auckland. The Air France price for the flights was considerably higher (circa 3,400 euros) than the China Airlines price (2,200 Euros). I talked to a regular on this route to/from Taiwan on the way back and he said he always booked via China Airlines for the Air France flight as the price was cheaper every time.