I wanted a deeply discounted business class fare LAS-MUC-LAS. I didn't find it on United's website but found a good deal on Lufthansa SFO-MUC-SFO. Previously I had called Lufthansa on an earlier similar special and asked if I could have the same deal from LAS if I paid the extra for the United flights between LAS and SFO. Lufthansa said no, I could only have the big discount for the listed cities. So I booked the Lufthansa SFO-MUC-SFO in business (requesting miles under United's Mileage Plus) and United/Ted flights between LAS and SFO. Having done this it occurred to me maybe the Lufthansa flight was a United codeshare. It was, so I decided to see if I could have booked the same set of flights entirely thru United. Although too late now that Lufthansa had my money, I could have booked it all thru United. Curiously booking thru United.com would have added about $400 for the LAS-SFO-LAS on top of the SFO-MUC-SFO fare instead of the about $200I paid for the LAS-SFO-LAS ticket. However, by making one booking I would have had valuable insurance in the event that the LAS-SFO flight was delayed or the MUC-SFO flight. If I had it to do over I would have paid the extra for that insurance. Happily, I found out that I would still get the 50% United EQM bonus for flying Lufthansa business class trans-Atlantic and the 100% redeemable miles bonus on this flight for being UA Premier Executive. What are the other pros and cons to booking something like this entirely thru United vs. United and a codeshare partner assuming one is in United's FF program and the codeshare partner is operating the major flight? For example, would the Lufthansa flight count as lifetime United miles if booked as a United codeshare thru united.com instead of thru Lufthansa? Would I have gotten EQM from my Platinum United Plus Visa for booking the transatlantic flight as a United flight? (The reason I found the deep discount business fare on Lufthansa's website but not United's was that Lufthansa's website explained the dates of the offer under its tab, "Top Offers" whereas United's website didn't mention this deal so the discount wouldn't show unless one knew which dates to use. Also, for LAS-MUC-LAS United's website defaults to a LAS-ORD-MUC or LAS-IAD-MUC routing which makes for a longer portion of the trip in economy as only TED serves LAS. One has to search for flights by schedule to get a LAS-SFO-MUC routing from the United website. In addition if Lufthansa was running the business class discount only SFO-MUC-SFO, but not ORD-MUC-ORD or not IAD-MUC-IAD, then the most common United website search for LAS-MUC-LAS would not show this special business fare deal accross the Atlantic.)