AirCanadaFlyer

I waited on board my plane for an hour and 46 minutes to get off tonight. The plane at our gate had mechanical issues and we could not get off anywhere else except this gate?????? I missed room service and missed seeing a client for a drink. There was empty gates all around but I guess the company was too cheap to deplane us there and move the plane later.
I hope the compensation is good for this because they caused me a lot of problems and the whole time, there was not even a glass of water offered. I may have to change my name to former ACFlyer.
Thumbs down on this one AC.

WR Cage

I do not believe that DCA is an airport with common use equipment, especially in the old terminal that AC uses. Therefore it is not possible for one airline to utilize another's gate because each airline owns/leases the gate. This is not a case of AC being too cheap.

That said I agree with you that DCA is a dump. I was there few weeks ago and the only good thing is the short cheap drive across the Potomac. There are plans to heavily renovate the A banjo that is AC/WN/F9/B6 ops.

Often1

OP is way out of line. DCA gates are leased to specific carriers. Absent an emergency such as an evacuation, it's not up to AC to simply trespass somewhere else. He is free to dump AC, but it won't be different on any other carrier, except that a carrier with more gates may have more options.

bluenose77

Ya they have an excuse with the gate, but I checked in the other night and every one of the counter agents really did not seem interested. None of the stanchions were up, so the AC area was the only airline that had no lines! Just a crowd. It was very frustrating for anyone that needed to visit the counter. And the staff really didn't seem to care!

gglave

While I agree it's not as easy to change gates as many people think it should be, I'm always surprised how hard it is to get people off an aircraft. It's a pity airports don't have a location where an aircraft can park and people can get off via airstairs and walk into the terminal.

rehoult

Couldn't they just phone WN and say "We've got $1000 cash; can we borrow your gate for 20 minutes?"

Jebby_ca

This. A lot of airports outside of North America have no issues with boarding/disembarking via stairs, even in regular ops.

winnipegrev

If I get to use a warm jetbridge, not get wet, and not have to carry my bag up stairs in exchange for waiting for a gate 1+ hours once out of every 100 flights, I consider it a good deal. I'll keep our system over the crap European walk off/bus combo system (particularly you, FRA) and budget/short-haul Asian airlines systems any day.

WR Cage

WN not a chance, others maybe. Other airlines on the DCA banjo are B6, WN, and F9. Only F9 appears to have capacity to give up gate space. But their ops are so limited there would likely be nobody on the receiving end of the telephone call.

Ultimate problem is that AC has no friends at DCA to coordinate with.

AirCanadaFlyer

Flying into DCA on AC again this afternoon so hopefully I can report a better experience.

AirCanadaFlyer

Back in the lounge as my flight is delayed 90 minutes due to flow control....

They must hate me in DCA or something...

WR Cage

The only people who like DCA are congresscriters, everyone else hates the place with a passion. Top on the hate list is secret service followed by Armed Forces. Where else would you send commercial airlines right through top 10 security zones like pentagon, white house, capital hill, etc.

It is the security zone accommodation procedures that create unique visual flight path for DCA. If IAD were closer to Capital Hill then DCA would turn into a hip urban revitalization zone.

gcashin

I like DCA from a number of reasons (close to DC, unlike IAD the gates are a short walk from check-in/security with no hassle of trains/shuttles, generally shorter security lines, nice view of DC on takeoff/landing).

However, I agree that AC's operations there are pretty disappointing. The terminal that AC is in is pretty dumpy, not enough seats, no lounge, few food options, and the AC staff have been pretty unhelpful on the last few visits. Last time I was there, we were the only ones in the Priority Check-in lineup, and the agents took 2 parties ahead of us from the Economy lineup without even acknowledging we were there. It wasn't until I started waving as she was about to call another person from the Economy line that she finally acknowledged us. I had some experiences there a number of years back (staff actually proactively offered to put my on an earlier flight), but the last few experiences have been very disappointing.

From what I recall, AC only has one gate there. Given that they have flights to 3 destinations (YYZ, YUL, YOW), I'd expect they'd have access to an alternate gate or ground loading/offloading to deal with situations like this where a YYZ flight may be in, but they may still have a flight from YUL or YOW using the gate.

FlyerAl

DCA is a convenient airport for visiting DC and Arlington/Alexandria and a great facility when flying US. That terminal AC uses is a 1950's-era dump that I didn't even know existed until experiencing it for the first time. They really need to tear down that old building and either build a brand new terminal or expand the B/C building. It's even worse than LGA Terminal B!

D582

Didn't AC used to be in Terminal B (with UA) a few years back? I don't think the current gate location is really AC's choice.