Several attempts to combine high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with flame ionization detection (FID) have been made since the 1960s. Elaborated systems were developed to overcome problems such as detector overload by use of organic solvents in HPLC or transfer of non-volatile analytes into FID. Almost twenty years after the first successful applications by solvent evaporation based techniques, subcritical water high temperature liquid chromatography opened the door for novel approaches to combine HPLC with FID. Direct coupling without pre-evaporation steps of signal disturbing organic solvents became possible and new instrumental developments resulted in capillary jet interface systems. These systems are suitable for a broad range of volatile and non-volatile analytes, which led to a significant increase of publications. This review discusses the most important developments of LC/FID coupling and summarizes its field of applications.