mherdeg

I was really excited when this morning's SEA-SFO landed early; I was hoping I might be able to catch the intl-configured SFO-LAX.

No such luck -- we stopped short of the gate at 0740, the captain explained that our gate was "occupied for five more minutes", and we got to the gate and opened the door at 0810. What a sad time to be penalty-boxed.

Actually the morning SEA-SFO always lands early -- 0730 is typical, so maybe the 0810 scheduled arrival is just there to account for penalty-boxing people?

We happened to have arrived at gate 89,and the intl 777 SFO-LAX happened to be leaving out of gate 99 ... so I got as far as the middle (gate 73) at 0814 to see that the flight had changed from "boarding" to "closed".

Bummed, I slowly ambled over towards the gate to confirm that it really was closed. I got there by 0825, 15 minutes after docking, a pretty long commute (but I wasn't really inspired to hurry).

Looks like the intl terminal continues to handle a big bundle of domestic flights -- SNA, MSP, KOA, for example.

Why are gates in such short supply on a weekend morning at SFO? I thought UA was cutting capacity across the system -- if an early flight can't deplane anywhere *now*, what were things like before? Does UA have plans to improve this setup?

mjg59

Continental moved to T3 which has increased gate use. Concourse E is being refurbished at the moment so there'll be more gates when it opens back up again, but US and AC are supposed to be moving there so I don't know whether United will be using any of them.

Shareholder

The final renovations at SFO involve one whole pier which used to be shared by AC and AA. AA has moved into the newly opened central pier, but AC and CO and UA will fill the two piers once completed. (Not sure if US would also move over and this would become a STAR complex, particularly unlikely if indeed US and AA are considering a merger of sorts.)

colpuck

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Not to be a jerk, the morning sea-sfo is nearly always delayed out of sea due to weather in sfo. I know because I watched this flight daily for almost two years. That being said one renovations are completed on the old AA gates...

United757

Oh really? The 6am or the 7am? The latter is usually delayed due to ATC but rarely the 6am in my experience.

How could you watch SEA-SFO flights for two years and miss that the earlier one is almost always on time because flow control isn't usually in effect yet?

itstimetofly

This is an on-going problem with United at SFO. And you're lucky, because the delays are worse on a weekday. You arrived during the busiest time in for United at SFO. The arrivals from Asia come in at 8-9am-ish. The departures back across the Pacific happen from 10am to 12pm. Consequently, the arrivals from around the country connecting to these flights arrive and depart around the same time. So there's a real crunch for gate space during the morning rush.

Concourse E, the old American terminal, is under renovation right now. When that reopens, the other two *A carriers US and AC will move into that pier. I suspect UA will get a few more gates in E during the mornings to keep up with the rush.

mherdeg

Interesting. I've only done the early-morning SEA-SFO maybe 5 times in the last few years, so I'll trust you guys on the data. It sure has been unseasonably nice in the Bay Area lately.

TA

According to what I have read (here: http://www.flysfo.com/web/export/sit...weatherops.pdf ), flow control for arrivals due to bad weather should not generally be necessary until after 8am.

Gate space is a different matter.

mherdeg

Ha! Starting next week, United has adjusted the arrival time of the first SEA-SFO and the departure time of the 777 SFO-LAX so that it is now a valid connection (30-32 minutes on the ground).

Unless they also adjust the departure gate of the 777 to move it out of the intl terminal, folks are going to see a lot of misconnections...

santarosaflyer

US is scheduled to move. And far as I know US and AA are not considering merger. Dougie has hired folks to explore US options but to the best of knowledge AA is not exploring merging with US. All I have read is AA is determine to stay independent and is connecting on BK to help is shave costs and ultimately continue to build stronger connections with BA/IB.

flyinbob

Plus it doesn't necessarily mean a shortage of gates. As happens often at ORD, there can be 15 empty gates, but if "your" gate is still occupied, they will penalize passengers sooner than make the switch to an empty gate.

And before all the apologists weigh in with the "do you know how hard it is to change gates" speech, it would seem to me that this happens often enough that they could come up with an operations plan for making those switches better. Or is it just easier to put the burden on passengers?

retiarius

I like the ring to that, as an Anglophile -- British-American Airlines

rch4u

... unless they just book the logical SEA-LAX nonstop.

NickP 1K

A lot of times it's SkyWest's poor operation as United Express that hoses mainline gates at SFO. My last 5 connections through SFO that resulted in waiting on a gate were the result of a SkyWest CRJ still at the gate and showing on United.com as delayed for whatever reason.

They need to isolate Skywest to the ex-Shuttle gates ONLY and stop putting them on the rotunda where the mainline flights go.

LIH Prem

???

-David