Originally Posted by
Paul1976NJ
I have never understood why airlines do this. What is the point? Can someone help me understand what benefit AA receives by doing this? Next week I am on AA 663 (PHL-DFW-LAS) and lose a segment and a couple hundred miles because of it, although it was by far the cheapest fare (plus my upgrade already came in for both segments at T-100) so I'm not complaining. Well, maybe just a little bit, because I fail to see the point.
Just speculation, but it could just be a marketing tactic - makes it look like more destinations from XYZ. If you look on the terminal monitors you will see all of these "direct" destinations.
I suppose that even if you have to change planes (which seems counter to the concept), it's still a little better than a non-direct connection; the "connection" will be shorter than a normal connection, and if you arrive late there's much less risk that you would miss the connection.
Never done one of these on AA so this is all speculation, but it's what I have experienced on some other airlines.