Denver Boarding Process
 

My last trip thru Denver, I got confused by the boarding process (which was different from my last time there).
My spouse and I got on as elites before Zone 1 boarded. We were directed to stand to the right in the hallway leading outside (just after the wheelchair pax and others needing assistance). We were in the first few rows of the plane.
Later, people started lining up on the left side of the hallway (way after we had scanned our boarding passes).
Then the gate agent opened the door to let us outside. And the pax on the left blended right in and mixed in with the rest of us who had come thru earlier in the boarding process. I thought maybe they were in the back of the plane, and were directed to line up separately to board the rear ramp. But then several pax on the left boarded on the front ramp of the plane before us.
Last time in Denver, the agent held back the pax to the left until the pax on the right had boarded.
Any ideas?

Yeah that happens every flight now. Sometimes the first passenger in the other lines is respectful, other times they are not. I have seen those people physically push others to make sure they got to the front. At the end of the day, it's not really that important to be a few passengers ahead unless you have a row 2 or 3 seat and get screwed out of bin space. But it does reflect on the nature of some F9 passengers and their staff at the airport who really couldn't give a s+$# about their customers. They are just under orders to get passengers out the door as quickly as possible, zones be damned. It's utterly stupid to start boarding 45 minutes before a flight when you rarely open the door to go outside more than 35 minutes before the flight, but hey who is going to stop you? Spent more for Board First? Guess you're the sucker today.

Just curious for all those here, has anyone deplaned by the back stairs at DEN? I don't get why they talk about quick turnarounds and yet never use the back stairs except for boarding. Frankly that would be of more use I would argue because on so many flights people are yelling that they are about to miss their connection.

It's largely because their ground handler has taken out 3 vertical stabilizers backing aircraft into the rear stair trucks. They're now parked away from the ramp and it's sometimes too much for them to drive them over to hook up.

I have a long connection at DEN and planning to camp out in the Amex lounge.

Given the large # of passengers boarding in Group 1 (or so it is reported), how soon should I get to the gate so I'm not stuck in the back of the line? I do not want to gate check.

We've had long layovers in DEN a few times (and camp out in the Centurion Lounge, too).
We're always back by the time our boarding passes say boarding starts, to make the most of our gold elite status (as I've written before, we always get on when they mention Diamond Elite boarding, and have never been turned away).

For those who care, it was a 20min walk + train from the Frontier gates (which are WFO) to the Amex lounge desk by C46. this includes a few minutes of stoppage time for trains just sitting in station.

I flew out of DEN on an overnight to MCO Saturday night, and can confirm the same thing happened. The pax lined up on the left just blended right in, so the boarding order didn't really matter at all. Fortunately, I was still far enough up to have plenty of bin space, but it's weird to have someone in Group 2 or later boarding ahead of elites.