Originally Posted by
GrayAnderson
So, I would interpret "direct flight" as generally being "same flight number, same plane, no need to disembark and reboard". Having to change planes suggests that the airline is just conserving flight numbers.
[I once went MCO-ATL-CLT-ATL-MCO on the same flight number on DL...]
Direct Flight is simply the same flight number. Airlines are required to disclose "change of gauge" flights which is where the same flight number continues between cities but there is an aircraft change. Virtually all "direct" flights in the US with the exception of WN are change-of-gauge and used solely for marketing purposes (a nonstop flight will generally rank above a direct flight, which even with COG will rank above a pure connection). Back in the days NW was horrible about this -- virtually any domestic flight that touched DTW was a COG even if the same equipment type operated both legs; on top of that the legs usually departed and arrived at opposite ends of the terminal, e.g. NW1234 from XXX-DTW would arrive as a DC9-30 at A1 but NW1234 DTW-YYY, also a DC9-30 would depart from A76.
The DOT does require airlines to disclose a change of gauge flight and UA probably did but OP's travel department ignored or didn't pass that disclosure on.
CO OnePass/UA MPs rules used to be worded such that essentially if the flight number didn't change you got segment (and for me, more frustratingly LFM) credit from the first takeoff to the last landing, as if the stop didn't occur. I don't see that called out in the current iteration of the MP rules, though the current iteration of MP rules is far more ambiguous about actually earning based on flight activity than the version I last remember analyzing.
I've had one successful "direct" flight -- PDX-SFO-IAD, and PP upgrade cleared well in advance so I didn't deal with the UG list but I did get credit for 2 segments. My last attempt at a direct flight (BOS-IAD-CLE) failed due to irregular operations.