Originally Posted by
Xero
US operates a direct flight for SFO-CLT-CDG. And as others have posted, it's pure marketing. When I was on the flight, which was delayed by 2 hours, they would mention "US Airways flight number #### with service to Charlotte and continuing service to Paris, France". However, the continuing flight to CDG was a different plane, and it left before we arrived.
So some customers missed their connections on their "direct" flight.
If anything, a direct flight should at lest require for the continuing flight to wait until the plane for the previous segment has landed. Otherwise, give it a different flight number. But then again, at least you save a bit on taxes.
It can also be dangerous. I think the FAA has fixed this problem (adding A and B after different segments, but my memory might not be working this early), but one time circa 2005 I was on a UA flight SEA-SFO listening to ch9 and we were late. As we landed the continuing flight number was taking off and there were some serious communication issues.