sea_jeff

Maybe it’s just me but we spent over 15 minutes de-bussing today at D22. It feels like a $39 discount airline.
This is my 3rd flight at D21+ and damn...

scubadu

Well, for the record, my inbox has been full of "$39" ticket offers from Alaska over the last many days

So I guess if the shoe fits...

Regards

notquiteaff

I was “de-bussed” last week at FRA, arriving in J on a Skytrax 5 Star airline.

https://skytraxratings.com/airlines/lufthansa-rating

“Lufthansa is Certified with the 5-Star Airline Rating for the quality of its Onboard product and staff service, and the Lufthansa home base Airport service.”

As this is a fairly common experience at FRA, clearly this is an indication of high quality

occasionally I enjoy the ride or walk to the aircraft. But not always, especially if it interferes with my connection. But if the alternative is not to serve a route that I want to use, I’ll take the inconvenience. Pretty sure the airlines don’t do it because it’s convenient for them.

PDXPremier

Are there particular routes where AS uses these gates because I've flown in/out of SEA multiple times on AS and have yet to arrive or depart from them?

jrl767

yeah, it's just you ...

seriously -- again -- there are three or four gates out of commission as the N satellite renovations continue ... gate scheduling (well, the entirety of ground operations) is a delicately balanced (and necessarily optimistic) choreography; given the infrastructure constraints, whether a particular flight winds up at a remote bus gate is pretty unpredictable

ctporter

I am NOT fond of the bus gates either, it totally messes up any order of priority boarding. The bus is crammed full, and I always manage to be one of the last passengers off which has meant my carry on is not near my seat. It IS a lot smoother than my first experience back when they first started using the bus gates, but that is not saying much. On the other hand, I much prefer the bus gates at SEA to the bus gate experience I had in CDG where instead of a little over 2 hrs layover I got to my connecting gate as they were boarding my group (back then it was Sky). I find it ironic that I used to dread finding out I would be flying out of N gates and now that I really want to fly out of N I am consistently either in C or D bus gates.

cslovacek

My wife and I hate remote gates as well, involving bus transfers. It happens a lot in Europe - we bussed from a remote stand at FRA last week after a 9 hour overnight flight. While I get why they do it, it's a pain.

After a long flight, the last thing I want to do is be crammed on a bus at 7 am, rubbing elbows with everyone.

ijkh

Bus gates are the worst when dealing with short connecting times.

eponymous_coward

Bus gates not going to go away because they're trying to squeeze a fairly large airport in terms of traffic into a fairly small area. They can maybe extend a bit on the north side of the airport for another satellite terminal, but that's about it. That's why they're mooting another airport (though I still think it should be a combination of PAE and BFI as regional relievers).

So have I, I've gotten them a couple of times. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

davistev

On the other hand, bus gates are fantastic if you like to look at the planes and have a tour. I have always enjoyed driving around airports but maybe that is the aviation geek in me.

sltlyamusd

exactly, it is very common in Europe but everyone complains when it happens in the US. Nobody thinks it’s fun but with airports so congested these days it has become inevitable.

notquiteaff

Doha, too, but Qatar had a separate bus for those of us in J. Almost like the Lufthansa Benz for F passengers.

rustykettel

I've gotten some pretty amazing views driving to/from the Eagles Nest at LAX. If I had my druthers, I'd still rather skip it.

davistev

And you also get to see cargo aircraft which are often older style aircraft (think Fedex DC-10s etc) or my recent sighting at SYD of the huge Antonov. But yeah - after a long flight I guess a bus ride could be the straw that breaks your back.

Austin787

If there were no bus gates, we would have more instances of "well folks, we've landed but our gate is occupied"

My favorite bus rides are to/from wide body aircraft: A330 at PEK and 787 at LHR.