Max -

I'm of the opinion that if you book a OnePass award on a partner carrier, somehow it costs CO money. Mind you, it probably get balanced out, but my hunch is that the agents are specifically told to offer all CO options first. I used some miles for an award to Calgary last year, knew it would likely be NW metal thru MSP. Got offered an IAH connection first, which from CLE makes no sense! I'll only fly that far out of the way if I'm earning miles! Then I was offered the CO codeshare on NW metal thtu MSP. When I asked for an NW ticket, I was told "but the flights are the same". That's where my suspicion comes from... Held out for the NW tickets, which were 5000 miles les, BTW...