warbo

Exactly, dukeman. It is not a 'US Airways joke' at all, nor is it part of any airline planners' "delusional minds" as per FCYTravis. Anyone who understands how flights are marketed knows that some are sold as 'direct', with the same flight number, even if it involves a change of aircraft. It's a marketing tool, not an operational one. It merely enables an airline to point out to a travel agent via their system that they also fly the same route as their competitor(s), albeit with a chage en-route. There is no deception here. All airlines do it.

At Res, we often get passengers calling in a rage because they have been sold what they consider a non-stop flight. 99.9% of the time this is because travel agents have erroneously told them "that flight is non-stop", or "It's just a touchdown in PHL, you can stay on the same plane..." Both of which are nonsense.

The reason for their dissatisfaction is purely that travel agents have not correctly informed them. When travel agents book these flights, they immediately get a message along the lines of "Warning: Change of aircraft in PHL: must inform passengers." If they don't notice this, or choose to ignore it to get a sale, they are to blame entirely.