A hijacking in progress... But I'll save it...
cszulc:
I know that the 2nd flight is throw-away ticketing. I am an EXP on AA so I can get my upgrade, but will they cancel my return if I book the outbound flight and book a return non-stop on AA or a different airline?
If the outbound and return are on one ticket, yes, they will. You CANNOT not fly a leg anymore and simply pick up the continuing flights. If you do throw-away ticketing it must be the last leg of the ticket.
The fare issue with the ORDLHR non-stop vs the connection is a routing issue. The fare on the non-stop is an ORDLHR fare. The AA/LH connection, even tho it's a connection thru LON, is actually a fare ORDDUB. Ireland fares are quite a bit less expensive. In the case of the ORDLHR connection on AA and EI, you have 2 fares - ORDDUB on AA and a cheap add-on DUBLHR on EI.
Isn't the Swiss option a connection also? But it seems the best compromise.
In the case of the US/UA codeshares, do you really want to know?
