zrs70

I was arriving at lax last week, and we waited 20 minutes or so for our gate (71a) to open. I was curious as to which flight was holding us up. But I couldn't find a way to look up flights by gate number.

I imagine this is NOT doable. But perhaps someone else knows a trick I don't know.

I manually plugged in a bunch of different destinations into the app until I finally learned that LAX-DEN was the culprit, showing a 1 hour delay from gate 71a.

FL390

Best way is to go the airport's website and check the departures screen. LAX's website even allows you to sort by gate. For example: http://www.lawa.org/fsw/default.aspx...&arrDep=depart

The gate can always change too if another one opens up.

transportprof

At some airports, it's almost impossible to find out which gate a flight is arriving at (although departures may be more clear).
I once was connecting @YYZ and meeting a friend who was another inbound flight. We'd planned to meet at their arrivals gate, since I arrived an hour before them. These were all domestic flights, so there should have been no problem. Boy was I wrong.
The airport screens, and most online info simply note the baggage claim area for arriving flights. Gate numbers are not posted. Then, when asking airport info counter, you get a wall of silence for "security" reasons.
Finally, I asked Air Canada staff in the Maple Leaf Lounge, but even they had to call to some operations center, and could only get the airport's gate number, which is different from the terminal gate number! So in some places, finding out gate numbers for flights can be an exercise in futility.

FL390

You can zoom in on Google Earth and see the airport gate numbers on the tarmac. https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6821.../data=!3m1!1e3

transportprof

Yes, but those are not the same numbers as those inside the terminal!

neo_781

There really isn't. I don't think there is a good tool to find out mass gate arrivals. Yes, you can look flight by flight and see the arrival gate but its not so easy to monitor a whole airport's arrival gates.

HOWEVER, it appears for your specific case, LAWA publishes the arrival gates via this site .... http://www.lawa.org/fsw/default.aspx

ORD use to have a similar display but it appears to be gone.

So, to sum it up, looks like it will vary from airport to airport.

nigos

The is an IPHONE application called Flightboard. You can select an airport and ask to see arrival and/or departure information sorted according to destination, origin, flight number and for most airports Gate number.

Allan38103

Yes. there are ways to find out the gate number ahead of time, but why? If you're arriving by plane, you can see when you get there. If you're not coming to the airport by plane, you can call the airline, check the website, or look at the monitor when you get there There's not much you can dp to influencet it.

And it's subject to change, so you're just going to verify it anyway. It's not like it's "secret" information

zrs70

Not sure if you understand why I asked....

To recap... My plane landed and the gate was in use. I was curious about the ETD of the plane at gate 71a. I didn't know of a way to look up a flight by gate number. Thanks to the kind souls on FT, I can now do this!

Yes, it's all subject to change. I get that!

t325

YYZ is a cluster when it comes to gate numbering, I think it has something to do with the fact they have gates that can be used for domestic, transborder and international flights depending on how the doors in the terminal are configured. So, each gate has a 3 digit gate number for use by pilots and airport ops that remains consistent, and then for passengers, the gates are either D##, E## or F## depending on what the gate is currently being used for.

In T1, most gates follow a pattern - like gate 157 is either D57 or F57, makes sense. But the pattern falls apart once you're into the 200s for some reason, gate 250 is F88 or something like that. I don't know why they just don't use 188 for F88. IIRC, all the 200 gates are in the glorified aircraft hangar AC and UA use for transborder RJ flights.

I don't know if T3 is any better, I've only ever flown out of T1.

Most people will likely never see the 3 digit gate number unless they're looking at Flightaware or something.

PTahCha

The way I do it is using Flightstats, and look up flight info by airport and airline, plus scheduled departure time. This will narrow down the number of flights. Start clicking through and find the right one.

pseudoswede

There is an app called FlightBoard that allows you to sort by gate.

bkco88

+1 for flightboard. It is my favorite travel app by far - I can always tell what the arrival flight on any airline is doing based on gate number. This has been extremely helpful in the past, allowing me extra time to contact CS if I know we will be delayed before it's up in the gate area. Highly recommended.

I still have the app on my phone - but for some reason I cannot find it in the app store. Not sure what has changed.

Allan38103

Knowing that there's another plane blocking your arrival gate and knowing WHY the plane is blocking your gate are two separate issues. And knowing WHEN the plane is actually leaving is yet another.

Again, what's the difference whether or not you know where the plane is going? Nothing you as a passenger can possibly do about it.

zrs70

I understand your point, and it's well taken. Perhaps I am reading tone into your post, but it is sounding like you are on the offense here. I really don't want to go there!

Let's see... You are right. I don't need to know where the plane is going. But without that knowledge, there is no way that I know of to find out when the plane is leaving. (The app won't tell me "gate 71a will be available at 2pm. Rather, it will show that UA #XXX has an ETD to DEN at 2pm).

You are right.... We can't do anything about it. But it's always calming to have info available.

Have a great day!