Over the weekend (and before the storm came rolling in) I flew BOS-IAD-SEA on UA. We touched down on time at IAD but had to wait 30-45 minutes on a taxiway for a gate to open up, thus spoiling my connection. My question is this: In such situations, why not park the plane at a remote stand and have the pax disembark via stairs and be bussed to the terminal? I generally appreciate that American airports virtually always provide jetbridges for mainline aircraft (unlike many European airports), but where facilities exist to disembark remotely, which they most certainly do at IAD what with the UAX operations out of the G Concourse, why won't they do it?