Originally Posted by channa
Really the use of flight numbers in this manner is a marketing tool to make the flight look like it's a non-stop or direct one when it really isnt. It's basically a bunch of crap.
And to save CO from many FF miles, especially for CO6/7 and CO88/89. And CO99 BOS-EWR-HKG actually has fewer miles than EWR-HKG. You get to lose a lot of miles if book these trips as a "direct" flight.