diff --git a/compiler/src/dotty/tools/dotc/core/NullOpsDecorator.scala b/compiler/src/dotty/tools/dotc/core/NullOpsDecorator.scala
index f1ff60e4ea22..572c94070066 100644
--- a/compiler/src/dotty/tools/dotc/core/NullOpsDecorator.scala
+++ b/compiler/src/dotty/tools/dotc/core/NullOpsDecorator.scala
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ object NullOpsDecorator:
 
     /** Is self (after widening and dealiasing) a type of the form `T | Null`? */
     def isNullableUnion(using Context): Boolean = {
-      val stripped = self.stripNull()
+      val stripped = self.stripNull(stripFlexibleTypes = false)
       stripped ne self
     }
   end extension
diff --git a/tests/explicit-nulls/pos/flow-flexible.scala b/tests/explicit-nulls/pos/flow-flexible.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..ea6d5fef2a95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/explicit-nulls/pos/flow-flexible.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+// This test is based on sconfig/sconfig/shared/src/main/scala/org/ekrich/config/impl/SimpleConfig.scala
+// In cases where a nullable variable is assigned a flexible type, we want
+// later code to type the variable access as non-nullable
+// Added in https://github.com/scala/scala3/pull/24278
+
+def main() =
+  var result: String | Null = null
+  result = "".trim()
+  result.trim()
\ No newline at end of file