Originally Posted by WillTvl4Food
Since half of the "direct" flights these days have an aircraft change, I wonder what the point is? (Maybe they are running out of flight numbers?)
I can think of a couple reasons airlines do it:
- They can convince many gullible passengers to choose their "direct" over another airline's "connecting" flight when pax aren't loyal to a particular airline.
- They can advertise that they serve more places from a given airport. So NW serves LAX, PHX, and SFO from LGA (with "direct" flights).
- I'm pretty sure they don't have to give as many frequent flyer miles for "direct" flights that take roundabout routings. A "direct" flight from LGA to PVG (via DTW and NRT), for example, might only earn the nonstop mileage from LGA to PVG, even though the actual flown mileage is more. I'm not sure about this one, though.
But mostly, I think it's just a holdover from the old pre-hub-and-spoke day, when the same equipment would usually continue on (which made "direct" flights preferable to "connecting" flights). Alas, now there's really no point except to mislead pax.