Article: Why Airports Reveal Gate Numbers at the Last Minute

[AFF Editor]

Canonical URL

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/why-airports-reveal-gate-numbers-last-minute/

Why Airports Reveal Gate Numbers at the Last Minute is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Why Some Airports Hide Gate Numbers Until the Last Minute

Some airports intentionally make people wait until boarding is about to begin to learn which gate number their flight will be leaving from. It's getting a bit ridiculous.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[RooFlyer]

Yes to Flighty. Sitting here at SIN at 8:30am and was told at check-in that the gate would be available "about 10:15" for an 11:10 departure. Flighty shows me that my gate is B1. Not least because the app also tracks the incoming flight and it pulled into B1.

Recently at LHR I knew the departure gate was different from that showing on the boards because, again, it showed where the incoming flight ended up.

 

[justinbrett]

European train stations have been doing this for decades...

 

[DejaBrew]

Agree that Flighty can be invaluable for this. Usually between Flighty and/or Trip It Pro, any gate info (including changes) are easily identified in the palm of your hand.

 

[VPS]

European train stations have been doing this for decades...

Not all of them. Switzerland of course publishes their platforms three months in advance and they’re stuck up on the wall at the stations.

 

[Forg]

Heh heh heh ... bit of a giggle at myself.

Airports want passengers to dwell where they’ll spend money

... which had me thinking to myself "yeah like that annoying terminal which they use for Deathstar in Melbourne".
Two paragraphs later ...

This strategy is particularly useful at places like Melbourne’s Terminal 4. There are almost no shops (and minimal seating) around the Jetstar gates

What's that old saying?
"Gate minds think alike"?


Sydney Central used to be all over the place with intercity platforms in the early 90's (don't know about interstate). You'd always have to check the indicator board, your train could be anywhere (rarely the Cronulla/Heathcote/BondiJn line underground but that DID happen on occasion - I know because it's a couple of hundred metres away from the intercity platforms so was a PITA if you weren't early!).
But now it seems to be published at least, I don't know how far ahead but the various apps which tell you which train to catch at which time now also tell you the platform.
I doubt that's anything about revenue though, and more about (dis)organisation.

 

[aikman]

I don't think it works that well for Jetstar passengers at MEL T4 because everyone knows where the Jetstar gates are and that there is a very long walk ahead so one shouldn't leave it too late to get there.

 

[Kerrodt]

I think there are also genuine considerations like (a) better passenger foot flow, and (b) chaos avoidance in doing this - up to a point. But on the other hand, releasing gate numbers 30 minutes before departure on an EasyJet flight is extreme!

 

[Aeryn]

Ive only ever missed one flight in my life and it was entirely due to the airport not putting the gate on the boards until it was too late.

I was in Buenos Aires at AEP (which mostly services domestic flight but also has a handful of intra south American flights) flying to Rio (GIG); I checked in a bit over 4 hours before my flight and a gate had not yet been allocated. Gate agent told me to go through initial security and then sit upstairs (there was no lounge) and monitor the boards to know which gate.

This was bad advice they should have told me all international flights leave from only 1 of 2 gates (next to each other) and that there was secondary screening for international.

The gate came up on the boards only 25 mins before departure, I head to the gate only to be confronted with a massive secondary screening line and immigration; i asked in broken spanish if I could go to front as my flight was boarding but queue naz_ was only letting passengers being paged jump the queue. Problem was LAN was paging me but only at the gate not in the security area.

Get to gate just after flight took off, only to be scolded by LAN that they were paging me, told them about not being allowed to come forward and they put me on next flight but I had to sit at a gate which only had a 1 tiny shop selling newspapers and candy for 7 hours til that boarded.

Given turn around times for international flights they should always know at least an hour ahead and push the data to the boards in real time.

 

[DejaBrew]

Great example just this evening for me at OOL. Flighty and Trip Advisor were both informing me of initial - and changed - gate details for my flight well ahead of the departure boards in the QPub.