Short hair Francis

Title explains it all...
Hoping for some answer from SEA based AAers (eg. BrewerSEA, Microwave, etc....)

Flying onboard AA 1881 ORD-SEA tonight and we're scheduled to park at S10????
Can't remember the last time I've been out to the S gate, nevermine being on AA, it seems like DL turf out there
I thought AA only uses gates A7/A8/A9, thats been the case the last 2 - 3 years.

SEAPlatinum

I've seen them use A14 and on my one and only departure from that gate the computers weren't working and they were manually checking off the seat map as we boarded. Upgrade processing was messy...

I wonder if schedule changes have resulted in more overnight stays for jets and they needed an extra gate?

Microwave

In my experience, S gates are not used for departures, but for arrivals when the aircraft will RON--the birds are then towed over to the A gates for departure the following morning. Most SEA arrivals after 6 PM or so will RON, except for the DFW or ORD red-eyes that are sometimes on the schedule.

As another example, last night I was on AA269, which arrived about 7 minutes before your flight. We parked at S12, and of course I had a checked bag, so had to slog it back to the main concourse and over to the baggage carousel. OTOH, I've never departed on an AA flight out of the south satellite; I've only ever left from A7, A8 or A9 (caveat: once, when the JFK flight had a 763 subbed in, I departed from A13).

As a side note, if you also checked bags last night, we probably saw each other, as I believe bags for both flights were coming out at the same time.

The nature of flight times and schedules for flights between SEA and DFW/ORD means many flights from those cities arrive to SEA at a time where turns back make connections more difficult. As such, AA tend to have multiple aircraft RON at SEA on an average night. This has been the case for as long as I've been an AA flyer.

ksweeney

You must be on some kind of code share. I don't fly out of SEA very often but the only carriers that I have ever seen on the south island are Delta, Asiana, British and Korean. BTW: SEA has a combined club for Asiana, British, and Korean on the South Island - really, really bad - even the Delta Skyclub next door seems nice in comparison

Microwave

See my post above--this was not a codeshare, and it does happen on later arrivals with some frequency; check the destination for my flight yesterday here.

tkelvin69

I get stuck once or twice a year at the South Terminal on an incoming flight.

ashill

I've had late-arriving AA flights arrive at S gates too. The one I particularly remember was heavily-delayed by an ORD snowstorm and arrived at 1 or 2 AM in the S gates. The plus side was that our bags beat us to the carousel. It doesn't take long to get from S to the carousel anyway.

All the foreign carriers (except AC) use the S gates, and Horizon uses it for international arrivals from YLW and any other airports without preclearance. I've had QX departures out of S too.

Short hair Francis

Now it makes sense, the odd night arrival will park at S gates
I do about 2 - 5 trips to/from or connecting via SEA and never had that happen before.
For Microwave, i'm on tonight's AA 1881, not last night.

Thanks for all the help SEA based AAers!

Gardyloo

We'll have to see if AA continues to use the south satellite in this manner once they've moved to the D gates next year.

mikelat

I can recall at least 3 flights arriving in to SEA over the past year that came in to the S gates. Departures are all from A, but I too was surprised when they announced we'd be at S gates incoming.

blakepilot

I'm 4/4 in terminal A on DFW-SEA-DFW during 2012, both arriving and departing. Latest, 2 weeks ago.