ORDUnitedMetal

Since ORD is my hub I will defend it. F and B are awful concourses. I used to hate being in C at

smashr

As others have mentioned, the biggest problem with UA are the "temporary" C/D concourses. B is really a beautiful building comparatively.

I think Dullus is on the up-swing, but we can expect it to be another 10 years before it is substantially better.

exerda

Their burgers are IMHO not bad... but the fries... ugh; the only adjective I'd add to the ones you used above would be "limp." Some people seem to love that style of fries; I am not one of them. The people who call Five Guys an "east coast version of In-N-Out" are smoking something, too.

Still, there's also a Cosi and IIRC at least another restaurant down in A (can't recall what). Cosi IME can be good, though I haven't eaten at one in an airport before.


You're 100% correct.

On Friday night, I flew IAD-ROA. There were 6 different flights listed on A2's board, and they were boarding out of order from what was listed. No indication of which flight was boarding, just GAs who speak English as a second language calling out (and it wasn't often clear from which gate they were speaking given half the A gates were departing at the same time).

They called for BNA "final boarding," then paged a couple of pax, and one guy went up to the gate. The GA turned him away, saying, "The Red Carpet is only for 1K and Global Services. You need to line up over there." He said, "I'm going to Nashville. You paged me." The GA then said, "The line is for Charlotte." Never mind she'd paged the BNA pax by name; never mind the line was for a different flight. Finally, another GA came in and started to shut the door, but the guy shouted, "Nashville?" and she waved him through.

Sigh.


It sure makes it hard to figure out which flight is boarding. And once you get past the gate, then you have to go out into the walkway and make it to the right plane there, too.


I'd actually call the LAX T8 food offerings worse. They've got, what, 2x Starbucks, a bar, and one other place? At least their hours have improved a bit; I can recall times when everything in T8 was closed by like 7pm and wasn't open for the early morning flights, either.


Well, until you hit WX at SFO.

There's a reason I typically book my connections through LAX instead of SFO... I cede a few miles that way, but rarely encounter WX. Seems like every single time I fly through SFO I hit delays and cancellations due to weather / ATC.


Indeed. The GAs can be awful, as can be the ramp staff. And the lack of a RCC sucks, too. I guess when traveling at the right time of day, the LH club down in B is accessible, though it's a bit of a haul from A1 & A2.


The other problem with DEN are the UX gates which board down the stairs and out the corridor, and where they make you line up in one of several roped-off lanes at the gate. Crowded, and with rude GAs IME, and with confusing boarding (was there a couple of weeks ago when they were boarding one flight, and GAs berated pax for being in the "wrong line" and made them go line up in a different one rather than just letting them through--they were doing general boarding of a single flight, mind you, and the signs were confusing as to which lane to use).

No better than IAD A and with the disadvantage of those stairs and the long walk once down them--though the upside is the gates are in the same terminal as mainline, and that terminal is pretty nice (love the double-wide moving walkways).

As to the DEN RCCs, don't they have those cubicles where you can go and plug in and have a desk? That might get you away from the crowd a bit and find a power port (though last time I used a DEN RCC, some guy walked around the whole RCC repeatedly on a loud cell phone call--even down through the side corridors where those cubicles were).


Blame the dot-com bust and then 9/11; had not those two wiped out the airlines, I think we'd have a new midfield concourse by now. IAD's long-term plan shows, of all things, several midfield concourses and a second main terminal at the other end of the loop. I can't find the diagram over in the Dulles D2 Web site, but at one point it envisioned at least 2 new midfield concourses and another main terminal out near where the aerotrain maintenance facility is now.


Wow, I didn't realize it had increased so much. Last time I took that cab ride was 2004, and it was just under $50 then.

kenhawk

I realize that UA can't do much about the actual facility/building....but come on, UA, do something about the customer service at IAD UX! It's time to send some plain clothes, non-ID wearing, management personnel from ORD or elsewhere to see what your customers are experiencing. You could do what we FT'ers do, listen to conversations between these UX employees and your customers, see how they are being treated.

Then, most importantly, do something to improve service levels. Demand more training for the UX people, (who, as you know, are wearing your UA uniforms and appear to the general public as United Airlines employees!) Empower them and their supervisors to take care of customers. In other words, run the business from a customer focused point of view.

smashr

The 'final' plan for Dulles is located on page 1 of the PDF here: http://www.mwaa.com/_/File/_/AeroTrainSystem.pdf

It includes 4 midfield concourses, and a new 'South Terminal'.

exerda

That's the one! Thanks.

warreng24

^^^

TWAB747nomore

After having flown through iad recently out of the A gates I was wondering what peoples opinions are of the A gate and the provide comments on the general attitude of the agents working the express flights there.

First off i think this terminal is complete chaos and half the time you cannot understand announcements, and it seems like each gate is compeeting against another to try and make announcement...
that is if they even make announcements.

it is sheer madness

I curious to see what other UA elite flyers and flyers in general think about United's operation manned by Air Wisconsin in the A gates

arma5

I fly IAD-PHL a lot on my way back from Europe. The A gates are dreadful, especially when placed next to an upgraded transatlantic leg.

The part that gets to me the most is when the evening flights are delayed by an hour or three, because some tiny plane hasn't arrived from some other tiny airport. And no RCC means no Internet while I sit and hope they actually enunciate clearly enough for me to notice once my plane does arrive.

Sunny_Island

Do any of the GAs at that terminal speak English as their first language? It's really a challenge to understand what's being said as they rush through announcements using strange pronunciations of ordinary words.

JetAway

It's a Third World bus station and very few GAs sound as if they speak English as a first language. I don't understand by whom and from where some of these employees are hired. As with many contract workers at IAD, an oddly large number seem to be of either Ethiopian or Somali background. Many are fine people, I'm sure, but their apparent lack of training and poor English skills add to the chaotic atmosphere of the terminal.

JerseyJoe

".... Third World bus station..."
Actually I think it resembles the Port Authority Bus Station in NYC quite well.
I'm sure that most of us who have been through the A gates will have similar opinions, but I doubt the DC Airport Authority has any current plans ( or funds) to upgrade this section of the terminal.
All we can hope is that when the permanent C-D gate terminal is built (probably not in my lifetime), the A gates will go away.

aluminumdriver

The worst operation United has is the A gates, a complete embarrassment IMO. The F and E gates at ORD are a close second. I need an interpreter when I fly through the IAD A gates.

AD

goingbananas

The A gates used to be nice back in the day when ACA was there and had the VIP lounge. The agents that work in there were great, especially Tammy. ^

They even had free wine and beer in there (for awhile).

Now, geez...I guess just hang out in the concourse while the GA announces the flight to "column-bus," "New-Jerk" or "Indiana-apolis"

bkc6j

There seem to be certain RJ flights that almost always operate out of the C gates (IAD-OKC comes to mind). Anyone know why that is? Does it depend on who the actual owner/operator is for the RJ (like maybe Go Jet doesn't use A gates)?