jamesdenver

West club is best. Modern, great views of airport ops, sunrise, and mountains. From south side (by the bar) you can see gate A41 across the tarmac, first gate left of center.

Walk to A41: About 8-12 minutes including train, 15 min max (at normal pace.) I do this frequently when I have time to kill and flying carriers in A or C.

NgatesSEA

Agree with post above, West club is a far better experience IMHO. Newer everything, window "bar" seating is actually not bad, and the furniture doesn't look like it has been attacked by clawed animals for years.

I believe the clubs are identical distance from the center of B, but I could be wrong (they are each at the end of the moving sidewalks leading to/from the center of the B concourse, where you catch the train to A and the terminal).

Noanker1

Thanks Denver flyers for the quick and helpful responses.

bmustaf

While I wish UA could move into Concourse A (walking bridge from Terminal is awesome, avoid the train silliness), if you look at KDEN from an aerial view and consider the logistics, it is clear why Concourse B is where United it.

They have been able to build on significant amounts of capacity (mostly for RJs and UX) that physically would not be possible in the A concourse and very limited in C with incredibly invasive work to reposition stuff that is fundamentally part of a design, ops, and certification of an airport like KDEN (e.g. just not enough apron there and/or abutting other buildings, the terminal, taxiways, fire/deice ops, etc, etc).

Not to mention on the South side of the A concourse said walking bridge clearance may not accommodate a larger a/c (747, A380, or maybe even 777X) with enough margin with respect to the empennage (not sure here). Granted, no one operates those and UA only operates one 772 out of KDEN, but in IRROPS they fly in wide bodies and having to route around that to access given runways and taxiways would be a huge pain and add a LOT of time and significantly constrain possible gate usage and in/out bound capacity. Also, rumors of one of the Middle East 3 coming into KDEN could mean an A380 making a stop (if it is done as positioning between either of the coasts, there isn't enough KDEN traffic to fill an A380, of course, but the city is growing like mad and in 10 years it is very possible). Also, UA is growing KDEN quite a bit I think we'll see a few more 772s (eventually 77Ws?), 787-10s, and 789s in and outta KDEN in the coming years.

A concourse is just a no-go there period for many reasons above, but also that customs & immigration is in A, so UA taking over there would require moving that out or losing that capacity when Volaris, LH, BA, and other International carriers use those gates. Not a good story!

C Concourse is better in that regard but still limited on the North side esp and East side.

NgatesSEA

Agree on UA in B. No question it is the only location. One of my favorite anecdotes about the design of and move to "DIA" (KDEN) from Stapleton is the story of Continental being angry about losing their maintenance facilities at Stapleton - and being sensitive to O&D Denver traffic - and insisting on the bridge from the main terminal to the A concourse, where they initially leased. At least as I've heard it, that is the (a main?) reason the bridge was included in the design/made it through budget cuts to actual construction.

nevansm

Didn't the original airport design (or maybe the 20 year plan) include an extension of B to the West? (Like C just went through). The gate numbers end at what like 12 now? I would think that's in the works...

cblaisd

Almost every time I arrive at DEN, the flight attendant announces that if you're connecting to another United flight, all those flights depart from Concourse B. Hope someone remembers to change the script

EWR764

It is true that Continental insisted on the bridge to A, which was not part of the original design. Originally, international gates were to be located on a separate concourse contiguous with the main (now Jeppesen) terminal, with the midfield concourses to be shifted farther to the north. It would be a layout similar to the T gates at ATL. However, in the recession of the late 80s, Continental convinced the city to dispose of the dedicated international concourse, move the international gates to the north side of A, and build a multilevel bridge to the main terminal through which domestic pax could be handled without taking the train (to create a competitive advantage for CO) and arriving international passengers could be segregated before clearing at the FIS. CO was to occupy the FIS-capable A gates at first, as it was the only airline operating a longhaul international flight out of DEN at the time (DEN-LGW), but agreed to vacate some of the gates if other carriers wanted to start international service. As it turned out, CO pulled down the DEN hub by the time the new airport opened, and IIRC the LGW flight was only around for a few months at DIA.

The master plan includes similar full-size concourse extensions to the east and west of A/B/C.

A32X aircraft are the the tallest permitted to pass under the bridge (40ft max), and wingspan max is 117 feet. The south-side A gates are primarily used by narrowbodies anyway, but anything larger than an A320 would have to backtrack around the north side of A if attempting to cross to the other side of the bridge.

bse118

AA flyer based in DEN here - AA is resident in the A concourse. The only problem with the A Bridge checkpoint is that TSA seems to have removed the PreCheck lane from that checkpoint. Oftentimes is now faster to deal with train and main checkpoints - because they still have Pre


Tail height of 42ft and wingspan of 118 feet are the max. A320/737. Definitely no 747 or 380s.

Both LH and BA operate 747s into DEN, using the north side of the A concourse.

In fact the airport just finished converting a few gates in A that were domestic only into international capable gates, building segregated connection hallways into the FIS area. These are the south side of the A concourse on east side of the bridge. So the airport has created additional capacity for international ops.

NgatesSEA

Yup, the A concourse has a different interior look now, with glassed-in corridors, stairs/elevators for some of the south-side A gates nearest the center of the A concourse. Becoming more than a mere (albeit significant) mid-America domestic connection point is great news for all of us in Denver.

DenverBrian

Indeed, a 757 once struck the passenger bridge, and the restrictions noted in this report are tail height 40 feet and wingspan 117 feet:

https://www.fss.aero/accident-report...eport_key=1112

EWR764

In retrospect, I believe these restrictions were loosened slightly to accommodate the A318 (briefly operated by F9) with its slightly taller tail and 737/A32X with winglets/sharklets (just a hair above 117' wingspan).

JOSECONLSCREW28

Look for an announcement regarding the expansion of Concourse B (specifically B1 - B15) within the next year.

COSPILOT

That is good news, but I was hoping to hear something about elimination of the wind tunnel dungeon for gates B59-B79. Turning those back into 3 normal gates would be fantastic from a customer perspective. With the end of the Q400 operations I was maybe too optimistic.

Smisek was pretty quick to make changes to the similar outdoor gates in ORD, I'm just surprised the DEN gates haven't been given the same attention.

jamesdenver

I did not know this - and thought I knew every nook and cranny of the airport. I wonder how many (that don't fly int'l or arrive int'l in DEN) know there's a lower level of the bridge.