Yes, a direct flight from DEN to SEA through SFO does indeed seem illogical. However, it does exist (which is why I made the post). The specific itinerary I was talking about is as follows:
Baltimore (BWI) to Denver (DEN) - Fri, Feb 6
United 1057 Dep: 4:03PM Arr: 6:13PM 4h 10m Boeing 737 Economy (G)
Layover in DEN 0h 55m
United Denver (DEN) to San Francisco (SFO) - Fri, Feb 6
United 1527 Dep: 7:08PM Arr: 8:57PM 2h 49m Boeing 757 Economy (G)
Stop in SFO 1h 38m
United San Francisco (SFO) to Seattle (SEA) - Fri, Feb 6
United 1527 Dep: 10:35PM Arr: 12:45AM Sat, Feb 7 2h 10m Boeing 737 Economy (G)
Seattle (SEA) to San Francisco (SFO) - Tue, Feb 10
United 1497 Dep: 5:20AM Arr: 7:38AM 2h 18m Boeing 737 Economy (G)
Stop in SFO 3h 22m
United San Francisco (SFO) to Newark (EWR) - Tue, Feb 10
United 1497 Dep: 11:00AM Arr: 7:29PM 5h 29m Boeing 737 Economy (G)
Layover in EWR 2h 57m
United Newark (EWR) to Baltimore (BWI) - Tue, Feb 10
United 5130 Dep: 10:26PM Arr: 11:33PM 1h 7m Embraer RJ-170 Economy (G)
This is from ITA. However, the same thing shows up on the United website. Please note the flight numbers and the length of the stops compared to the layovers. Here we see what would have been an itinerary for 6550 miles becomes an itinerary for only 5086 miles. That is a difference of 1464 miles (not 2 miles, as the truly confused might believe)! This itinerary is currently priced at $275. That means the cpm goes from 4.2 to 5.4.
And yes, I am familiar with the concept of a direct flight and how they are nothing new. However, the intent of my post was to discover if we are now seeing more direct flights (in situations where they might seem inappropriate) that are causing us to lose miles. If so, why is this happening?