Early arrival - gate is occupied
 

I'd say 15-20% of the time

Best line ever from the Captain: "Welcome to Newark. Our gate is occupied. So we'll circle the block looking for a parking spot, like any good New Yorker."

I'd say it happens 30-40% of my flights into ORD that arrive at or before scheduled departure time (about 60% of total flights into ORD) and not infrequently at EWR. Can't say I've experienced it in IAD or IAH, and I don't get to the Western hubs often enough to have a valid sample.

A couple years ago I actually misconnected at ORD because our gate was occupied, the previous flight departed a few minutes late and the agent operating the jetway disappeared -- so we were on the ground ~30 early, but the door didn't open until +20 and I had to go from B22 to F16 or thereabouts. Got to the gate just as the door was slamming closed.

Long term issue at LAX
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...rival-lax.html

But a bit of a downside of padded schedules and early arrivals, IME, at SFO or EWR also,

While annoying, if eventual arrival is on-time, I can live with it.

Had a first for this last week. Flying SFO-EWR, about 30 mins before landing the pilot told us that we'd probably have to wait on the ground for 10-15 mins as our gate likely wouldn't be ready as we were landing ~30 mins early.

He was right, except the plane that was at the gate ended up departing late, so we sat literally in sight of the gate (and the plane still at it) for over 30 mins until we were finally able to park.

I've had plenty of waits for gates before (mainly at SFO, and to a lesser extent at LAX and EWR as others have said), but never with that much notice...

EWR - ORD - all the time - I avoid these airports - but our corp office is in Chicago so VoV
IAD-IAH rare - and I fly there a LOT more
DEN - never happened to me - but I fly there very little

Been an issue for a while now and I don't see it being resolved in the next few years. Pretty annoying, but had to just get used to it.

30-40% in EWR and ORD

It's far from a UA problem. Happens with most carriers using a hub system at their hubs. An efficient and well-run schedule means that leaving valuable gates unoccupied is a bad idea.

It's so amazing to me that people complain when they don't have a gate because their flight arrived early. So, the winds were more beneficial than planned....big deal. Airlines only have a set number of gates they lease (or own). If you are seriously late because of an occupied gate, then I could see maybe complaining about it. But if you land early, what difference does it make that you didn't spend that time in the air instead of on the ground?

Happens frequently at DFW.

There is NO reason for the pilot to come on the horn after landing. If he does you can most certainly expect either your gate is occupied or there is traffic blocking entry.

If you hear the following two words come over the horn from the pilot during taxiing to your gate you aren't goin' far:

"Well, folks...."

I highly doubt that UA's early arrivals have much to do with beneficial winds, but more with how much they pad the schedule. Earlier this year I made an EWR-DEN flight - so flying against the jetstream - 40(!) minutes early. No gate issues at DEN, of course...