here is a FlyerTalk-oldie about direct flights:

"beat the system" tip 1: watch out for "direct flights"
Rudi posted 09-14-1998 10:26 AM
http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ft...ML/000139.html
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines "direct" as: "straight, not crooked(ly) or oblique(ly) or round about; ... without intermediaries".

The airlines define "direct" as: "We may go all over hell and back, stopping four-hundred and eighty-three times in between, but you won't ever have to change planes".

What you and I think (thought before we became experienced frequent flyers) as "direct", the airlines call "nonstop".