Originally Posted by
CAPTVOY
I haven't noticed that here in UK or in Asia, I take it this practice is common in the US. IMO, it sounds silly, if your flight from A to B happens to stop at C and the latter flt is operated with a different aircraft, it should have a different flt number for route B to C than A to C. It's only acceptable practice imo if the entire flight is operated by the same aircraft and is listed as having a stop-over.
But in the airline industry "direct flights" and "non-stop" means two different things, "direct flights" can have a stopover whilst "non-stop flight" is quite literally non-stop.
Among airlines I know about, Cathay Pacific, Southwest, and Alaska all have it so that the same flight number means that you are scheduled to stay on the same airplane. On United and Delta, the same flight number is no guarantee that you are scheduled to stay on the same aircraft, and in most cases, you will not and have to make a connection (or miss the connection).