"Notorious" DCA Gate 35X again referenced in media
May 13, 2019, 12:16 pm
#31
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And we're about what, five years into that agreement?
May 13, 2019, 12:42 pm
#32
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It's not like slots are readily available at DCA. Parker gave away the farm at LGA to get a far smaller number of slots at DCA, and they had to give away those DCA slots in the merger. It's hard for me to see how more gates being available for AA at DCA would suddenly make other airlines pull back in a way that would let AA gain slots. If there were an opportunity to gain more slots at DCA, I'm sure AA would regardless of their gate situation.
May 13, 2019, 7:02 pm
#33
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Dallas
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If you all think 35X is going to be retired I have a bridge to sell you. AA has added gate capacity in CLT. Did their walk-out gates go away? Nope. They added gates at MIA. Did their walk-out gates go away? Nope. The added gates at LAX. Is the Eagle's Nest still there? Yup.
AA will fill the 14 new gates with aircraft and then go right back to using 35X to board flights on RON pads. I'll believe 35X is going away when they rip the darn thing out.
AA will fill the 14 new gates with aircraft and then go right back to using 35X to board flights on RON pads. I'll believe 35X is going away when they rip the darn thing out.
May 13, 2019, 8:58 pm
#34
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Arrived at 35X last night. A much longer bus ride from the planes as they now park farther out past the construction site. Of course AA is getting a brand new terminal to replace 35X and there will be a new AA Club. It wasn't all that bad arriving, departing is the issue.
Once all the checkpoints move to the new single check point (some years off) - then I suppose Terminal B AA club will close. I suspect AA will only keep 2 clubs not 3.
Once all the checkpoints move to the new single check point (some years off) - then I suppose Terminal B AA club will close. I suspect AA will only keep 2 clubs not 3.
May 14, 2019, 12:27 pm
#35
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Arrived at 35X last night. A much longer bus ride from the planes as they now park farther out past the construction site. Of course AA is getting a brand new terminal to replace 35X and there will be a new AA Club. It wasn't all that bad arriving, departing is the issue.
Once all the checkpoints move to the new single check point (some years off) - then I suppose Terminal B AA club will close. I suspect AA will only keep 2 clubs not 3.
Once all the checkpoints move to the new single check point (some years off) - then I suppose Terminal B AA club will close. I suspect AA will only keep 2 clubs not 3.
Jun 9, 2019, 11:42 am
#36
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I have had many failed relationships to many bad people, but my worst ex, is 35X
- Me
- Me
Apr 7, 2021, 10:43 am
#37
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A lovely tribute to 35X in the WP.
Goodbye to Gate 35X, cursed portal to the rest of America
Let’s get right to it: It was a bus station. A bus station in an airport. It was two places you’d rather not be, melded into one place.
There was no flourish to its badness. Gate 35X at Reagan National Airport did not have the utilitarian exotica of the Dulles people-movers, trundling across a tarmac Tatooine. It did not have the high-low smack of Union Station, where travelers are welcomed by the Roman arches of Constantine but digested through a boarding area that feels like the waiting room of an ER. Gate 35X wasn’t a vortex like the Springfield Interchange, or a labyrinth like the Metro station at L’Enfant Plaza. Gate 35X didn’t qualify as a municipal quirk, like Washington’s lack of a J Street. Gate 35X was just a bus station. In an airport.
Except, somehow, it was more than that. It was a funnel, a choke point, a cattle call. One gate, as many as 6,000 travelers per day. The ceilings were lower. The seats were all taken, as were the electrical outlets. There was no bathroom down there, no vending machine, no water fountain. Dante’s circles were over-invoked. The complaining was olympic.Queues kinked in our slow sprint to somewhere else, through a bay of four doors, via shuttle rides that were short distances but long journeys, onto small regional jets bound for second-tier American cities.
There was no flourish to its badness. Gate 35X at Reagan National Airport did not have the utilitarian exotica of the Dulles people-movers, trundling across a tarmac Tatooine. It did not have the high-low smack of Union Station, where travelers are welcomed by the Roman arches of Constantine but digested through a boarding area that feels like the waiting room of an ER. Gate 35X wasn’t a vortex like the Springfield Interchange, or a labyrinth like the Metro station at L’Enfant Plaza. Gate 35X didn’t qualify as a municipal quirk, like Washington’s lack of a J Street. Gate 35X was just a bus station. In an airport.
Except, somehow, it was more than that. It was a funnel, a choke point, a cattle call. One gate, as many as 6,000 travelers per day. The ceilings were lower. The seats were all taken, as were the electrical outlets. There was no bathroom down there, no vending machine, no water fountain. Dante’s circles were over-invoked. The complaining was olympic.Queues kinked in our slow sprint to somewhere else, through a bay of four doors, via shuttle rides that were short distances but long journeys, onto small regional jets bound for second-tier American cities.
Apr 7, 2021, 11:09 am
#38
Join Date: Oct 2014
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A lovely tribute to 35X in the WP.
Goodbye to Gate 35X, cursed portal to the rest of America
Apr 7, 2021, 11:59 am
#39
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I just paid the $1.06 to sign up for a WaPo trial. The article was worth the $1.06 and the 5 minutes.
I'm actually flying DCA-PWM on April 20... it's on a CR7 so it normally goes out of the end of the pier (41/43 etc) but I might still need to take a walk through the new terminal if in fact it's open then...
I'm actually flying DCA-PWM on April 20... it's on a CR7 so it normally goes out of the end of the pier (41/43 etc) but I might still need to take a walk through the new terminal if in fact it's open then...
Apr 7, 2021, 1:36 pm
#41
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If you've used D60 at MIA, gates 31/32 at JFK T8, or maybe the high E30's at CLT, it's sort of like those but with dozens of flights all apparently leaving at the same time through a handful of doors, with the door announced just before boarding through a loudspeaker system that has everyone yelling over each other. And you have to take a bus from the door to the plane. And the planes are pretty much all E40/45 or CR2, so no one is happy to be there.
It really does have a third world feel (reminds me a bit of CMB but without the decent shops, lighting, and bathrooms), and no one will miss it.
Apr 7, 2021, 1:50 pm
#42
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A lovely tribute to 35X in the WP.
Goodbye to Gate 35X, cursed portal to the rest of America
Apr 7, 2021, 7:59 pm
#43
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Washington DC
Posts: 1,358
My first time at 35X -- I did not realize that "priority boarding" of any kind was meaningless out of this gate! Instead, the trick was to stand close to the exit door on the shuttle bus so that you could race off the bus and onto the plane. Fortunately, that trick is history now...
Apr 7, 2021, 11:11 pm
#44
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My first time at 35X -- I did not realize that "priority boarding" of any kind was meaningless out of this gate! Instead, the trick was to stand close to the exit door on the shuttle bus so that you could race off the bus and onto the plane. Fortunately, that trick is history now...
If you think boarding is bad, try arriving on a long haul into a bus gate in business class.
Defeats the whole purpose of getting off the plane first to get to immigration first.
Apr 7, 2021, 11:53 pm
#45
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Standard operating procedure for bus gate which is more common in European airports. A bit annoying for elites to board the bus first and block the entrance hindering others from boarding the bus. I usually don’t priority board and wait for the 2nd bus if I know it is a bus gate.
If you think boarding is bad, try arriving on a long haul into a bus gate in business class.
Defeats the whole purpose of getting off the plane first to get to immigration first.
Defeats the whole purpose of getting off the plane first to get to immigration first.