Originally Posted by
sokolov
(Besides I wonder what the point is of having a single flight number for this, with a 3 hour layover and a plane change. This is not your usual stopover on a direct flight.)
Saves flight numbers. Between the size of the modern carriers and all the partners they codeshare with, the US majors are pretty tight on 4 digit flight numbers.
And some dumb legacy systems may show these direct flights preferentially to connections with two flight numbers.