@@ -1326,15 +1326,14 @@ def _parse_coordinate_arg(coords, frame, units, init_kwargs):
             # SkyCoords from the list elements and then combine them.
             scs = [SkyCoord(coord, **init_kwargs) for coord in coords]
 
-            # now check that they're all self-consistent in their frames and
-            # check if they are all UnitSphericalRepresentation internally
-            allunitsphrepr = True
+            # Check that all frames are equivalent
             for sc in scs[1:]:
                 if not sc.is_equivalent_frame(scs[0]):
-                        raise ValueError("List of inputs don't have equivalent "
-                                         "frames: {0} != {1}".format(sc, scs[0]))
-                if allunitsphrepr and not isinstance(sc.data, UnitSphericalRepresentation):
-                    allunitsphrepr = False
+                    raise ValueError("List of inputs don't have equivalent "
+                                     "frames: {0} != {1}".format(sc, scs[0]))
+
+            # Now use the first to determine if they are all UnitSpherical
+            allunitsphrepr = isinstance(scs[0].data, UnitSphericalRepresentation)
 
             # get the frame attributes from the first one, because from above we
             # know it matches all the others
 
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 
 from ... import units as u
-from .. import AltAz, EarthLocation, SkyCoord, get_sun, ICRS
+from .. import AltAz, EarthLocation, SkyCoord, get_sun, ICRS, GCRS
 from ...time import Time
 
 from ...tests.helper import pytest, assert_quantity_allclose
@@ -143,3 +143,14 @@ def test_regression_4996():
 
     # this is intentially not allclose - they should be *exactly* the same
     assert np.all(suncoo.ra.ravel() == suncoo2.ra.ravel())
+
+
+def test_regression_5209():
+    "check that distances are not lost on SkyCoord init"
+    time = Time('2015-01-01')
+    # this regression test was written for a later astropy with get_moon, but we
+    # can just mock it up
+    #moon = get_moon(time)
+    moon = GCRS(10*u.deg, 20*u.deg, distance=384000*u.km, obstime=time)
+    new_coord = SkyCoord([moon])
+    assert_quantity_allclose(new_coord[0].distance, moon.distance)