Originally Posted by
channa
It's sad that the airlines have no intent of offering the flights as true "direct" service, and in many cases, even have a change of equipment at the stopping point, so there is no way it would have been the same aircraft anyway.
The only way they're going to stop doing this is if the government bans the practice, or regulates it thoroughly.
You bring up good points--and I disagree with the practice of flying direct with different equipment. However, I think WN may actually use the direct flights in a legitimate fashion, having flown them in years past.
But, while everyone talks about a misunderstanding and someone booking it thinking they are on a nonstop--MOST of the times I have seen this, it does show that there is a connection.
I just now did a pair of test searches on CO and WN sites for direct flights that were not nonstop.
Here is how CO puts it for CO47 "1 Stop. Time on the ground in Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) is 1 hour 30 minutes. Change Planes. Equipment changes in Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) to a Boeing 757-300."
Seems pretty clear to me, and it is in the same yellow text bar as connecting flight options.
WN lists the flight as a single flight number, and then is pretty clear about it. The flight #s and stops columns of a HOU-SLC lookup "141.....1 1384/1461.....PHX/1 101.....1 776/3026.....LAS/1"
To me, it looks like CO and WN in this case aren't being misleading. Imagine it like a limited warranty--you know it is limited because it says so, and you have to look at the details to see what limits it. A direct flight (again, from my looking up) states that there is a stop, but you might have to spend a few minutes and look at the location and length of the stop, along with the miles difference (that was very clear on CO).