United is expanding into A gates at Denver (& some C gates)
 

Flying this morning DEN-CLT and overnight the departure gate switched to A41. This is the gate used by LH and is the closest gate to the center of concourse A. I asked at the UA Club (on B Concourse) and the agent said that United is expanding into A gates at Denver. Flight crew all showed up late, most apologizing and saying they went to the B concourse. UA had two of the newer BP scanner podiums (the ones on wheels) at the gate but one didn't work. The gate agent made a number of announcements apologizing for the non-UA setup (the gate area, boarding podiums, boarding lane markers were all LH: "Lufthansa First Class", "Lufthansa Business Class", and "Lufthansa Economy" by row), which made for mild confusion - mostly from people unwilling to heed the gate agent's request to not que given there were no UA zone boarding lanes set up.

The total time from the UA club to A41 was about 6 minutes but I did hit the train just right leaving B for A. Not bad but a bit of a hassle to take the train twice to use the club before the flight. I guess arriving to the A gates would be preferable if you were ending your trip in Denver.

Anyone have insight on how many gates UA is using in the A concourse? Is there any rhyme or reason for which flights use the A gates? The inbound aircraft for my DEN-CLT flight was domestic (from PSP). As we taxied to the runway, I noticed a large number of empty gates on the B concourse.

Wow, news to me! Thought it was just for int'l arrivals.

Huh... now I feel bad. I was on a flight a few weeks ago that arrived into DEN late. The folks in the row behind me were paranoid because they had a connection to make, and insisted that their flight was out of Concourse A. I told them that they had to be wrong as all UA flights leave from B, and since were arriving mid-terminal, they wouldn't have too far of a dash to make their flight. Chill out, plenty of time to make the connection.

Whoops... hope they made it!! This is definitely news to me too, but I can corroborate at least one other case of someone _thinking_ they were flying UA out of A!

I didn't even know they had a gate issue at DEN. I guess with them banking flights, it makes gate availability an issue but I thought I would see something like this at LAX or ORD before DEN.

A33, A35, A37, A39, A41, and A45 have been used lately, mostly for arrivals from MMUN, MMPR, RJAA, MMSD but also some domestic stuff.

Only A41 seems to be used for departures (all domestic in the last couple weeks), they may be towing the others to B.

Seems like it would be logical for domestic turns after international inbounds to use the A gates, instead of a tow over to B. Nice to see some emphasis on the DEN hub again... it's reminiscent of the 'old days' with 727/737 flights leaving from gates on the SE side of A.

Not exactly convenient (and a bit confusing) for connecting pax, though. I wonder if UA will eventually remove the B59-79 shed and reactivate those 3 or so contact gates for mainline operations, as regional departures at DEN appear to be down quite a bit.

Very interesting. I've seen F9, AA, and now evidently UA, all use A41 for departures in the last couple of weeks. I know gate space for AA is at a premium in the AM, too.

Bolding mine. Use of A gates for international arrivals is hardly noteworthy as that's the only concourse with FIS.

Also, any particular reason you're using the ICAO codes, rather than the three letter IATA codes? I had to google each of those to figure out what you were referring to...

Probably ten years ago or so united express used A gates.
Always had to scuttle thru B after arriving from LAX or SFO and catch the train to A for a flight to FSD. A bit tricky with <1hr connection times.

For those that don't want to google...

MMUN = CUN
MMPR = PVR
RJAA = NRT
MMSD = SJD

As previously noted, any int'l arrival in DEN uses an A gate.

I believe since DL has or will move to A UA wants to make sure it also has flights departing/arriving A. (Not just intl arrivals)

Because I live in an ICAO world, I find them easier to mentally place when you don't know the actual airport, and the annoyance of IATA/FAA LID collisions.

I miss the point.

DL flies to DEN out of their hubs. No connecting traffic of note.

Take a route such as ATL<>DEN. Both airlines fly it, but they really do not compete. Way to many pax on this route are already locked in, one way or the other. Fighting over the few remaining pax would lose money on the rest.

Whoosh!

I believe OP was making a joke referring to the common claim that UA must copy Delta in every change they make.

If they need more space they should really just expand Concourse B. It may be expensive, but it is really worth it in the long run to have all of the domestic operations out of one terminal. And they have the space west of the concourse to do it.

I remember connecting at DEN before the regional gates were built, and connecting between concourses is a real pain when the connection times are short.