Originally Posted by
jsloan
Well, yes, that's the fare class discrepancy I was talking about. However, if you look into the fares themselves, there's not really a distinction there -- they both carry the exact same table of partner flights and fare classes to book into. Taking the first pair as an example, what you're seeing is that UA flights need W space but LH flights require Q space, but that's the same whichever fare you book. So, given the same inventory, they should price out the same.
Fully agree and that matches my experience with RTW tickets. The fare is the same but each carrier dictates which booking class to use on their own metal. Sometimes this can work to your advantage: On CRWSTAR1 fares (Business Class) for example, LH flights book into D and UA flights into Z, the same consequently applies for LH codeshares on UA metal and vice versa. If you take a LH operated flight over the atlantic, you could use your UA PlusPoints to upgrade into First Class if you book it with the original LH flight number. If you use the UA codeshare flight number, it needs to be booked into Z class and you can't use your PlusPoints.
To the OP, depending on the RTW fare and routing you are looking at, you might actually be better off PQP-wise if you don't have a ticket on 016 stock and instead have each flight calculated on its own merits (check
https://pqp.economiles.com/).