OK John, lets look at two different OWE itineraries. One uses a direct flight to SEZ, the other fails to take advantage of the direct flight, listing LHR-NBO-SEZ.

1) LHR-SEZ-NBO-JNB-VFA-JNB
By using a direct flight to SEZ, it frees up one of my 4 inter africa segments letting me see more. Notice that I still get my fill of NBO, since I must go through there on the return anyway... A proper stopover, so looks like I get to see more than airport eh John?

2) LHR-NBO-SEZ-NBO-JNB-VFA that's it!
Oops, because I didn't take advantage of the direct flight on this one itinerary, I end up with one less segment to play with in Africa. I made it to VFA, and now need to pay for an extra segment or overland somehow to get to JNB for my next continent.

Suppose I need to fly from TPA to SJC on my OWE. Do you understand the benefits of ticketing it as TPA-SJC on a single direct flight coupon, versus TPA-DFW-SJC (or TPA-ORD-SJC, whatever)? It frees up one of my 6 segments to go someplace I want to, instead of a major hub I don't. Unless a person gets excited about multiple stopovers in major hubs, a direct flight can be very useful. Sometimes I want to skip hubs altogether. Other times, one stop is plenty.

A direct flight can save me extra segment charges, or get me more places in each continent.

[This message has been edited by benoit (edited 05-17-2003).]