flyerboyek From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 72 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 years 8 months 1 week 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 1792 times:
First post here in something like five years. Been too long!
Anyway, I flew in to DCA on DL2038 last month. It was a Saturday, and apparently our gate was occupied. So instead of waiting longer than we had to, we pulled into gate 14, which is in the area that CO uses that connects terminal B to terminal A (think it's technically B).
When I disembarked, I noticed the gate had no signage on it and the monitors just said METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON AIRPORTS AUTHORITY. Does any airline use this gate? I don't believe it's Delta's. But at a crowded airport like DCA it seems weird that they would keep a gate free like that.
I also wouldn't be surprised if the departing leg on that plane — didn't catch the reg but the flight was 14 Aug. — got towed to a different gate before it was boarded.
apodino From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 3635 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (2 years 8 months 1 week 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 1763 times:
Gate 14 is actually the Alaska Airlines gate in DCA, and Alaska Airlines is in Terminal B. Although the gates in DCA are not common use, the gates themselves use Monitors rather than airline signage, and this is not uncommon in the US (Airports like DTW North Terminal, MSN, CAE, ONT, and airside 4 in MCO are examples of non cute airports like this).
That being said, I believe that AS may be ground handled by DL in DCA. So although gate 14 is the AS gate in DCA, if there was no AS flight at the time you were arriving, DL could have "borrowed" the gate from AS for your flight.
Scenarios like yours though are good examples of why CUTE is still the way to go, and I will continue to advocate for all US airports to go to such a system as I always have.
flyerboyek From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 72 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (2 years 8 months 1 week 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 1754 times:
Thanks for your reply, definitely makes sense.
Quoting apodino (Reply 1): Although the gates in DCA are not common use, the gates themselves use Monitors rather than airline signag
What I meant here was that the Delta gates at DCA have additional monitors -- the typical DL ones that show the stby and upgrade list. That was one of the giveaways that it wasn't one of their gates.
co/ba From United States of America, joined May 2001, 399 posts, RR: 3 Reply 3, posted (2 years 8 months 1 week 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 1548 times:
Gate 14 is now used by Delta. Alaska gets their gates from DL. Alaska will use any DL gate that DL gives them for their RON but departures have to use either 16 or 14 (usually 14). World Wide takes care of the ramp and AS has their own gate agents.
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