I notice quite a few stations and airports (particularly in the UK, but US as well) do not release the number of the platform or gate that a plane/train is leaving from until the last minute (some terminals in Heathrow, and London train stations are where I have noticed this most recently).
What possible reason is there for this? All it does is force people to stand wait in the middle of the airport/station staring at the announcement board, then rush en masse to the station/gate when it’s announced.
How does this help anyone? I figure there must be a reason, but I can’t think of it, and have to chalk it up to sadistic station/airport designers Gates and platforms are after all designed to have people wait at them, that’s the reason they exist. They only possible reason is it allows the management to change gates at without having people trek across to the new gate. But that seems a pretty minor advantage, given the amount of grievance it causes customers.
The only airport I’ve encountered this nonsense at is Heathrow, and I assume it’s because Heathrow is so crowded that they just don’t have gates available until 30 seconds before boarding, and the small gate waiting areas can not accommodate multiple plane-loads of people.
Regarding trains, the Long Island Rail Road does the same thing at Penn Station. That’s because Penn basically operates at full capacity all the time, and they can’t be completely sure about what track a given train will arrive on, and there are basically no trackside waiting areas for the LIRR.
Grand Central Terminal does things in a much more civilized manner. But it helps that it’s a terminal.
I never understood this as well, while travelling on trains in Europe. It’s not as if the trains schedules are rearranged every day and you don’t know when a train is pulling in or out. The train schedules in Japan are so systematically structured that you know not only which platform a train will arrive/depart months ahead of time, but also which carriage will drop you off at which area or exit of the platform.
The norm in US airports is to make info about each flight’s planned gate available to the public 12-18 hours before arrival/departure. Typically the morning flights’ info is released in later afternoon the day prior, and the remainder of the day’s flights are released early in the AM. And then we release any changes as the decisions are made.
I’m not claiming this is universal here, but it’s pretty rare to do otherwise.
One difference between the US & Europe is that it’s pretty rare in the US to use pooled gates; each airline has an exclusive lease on their particular gates. AIUI, pooled gates used by all (or a group of) carriers is more common in Europe and some Latin American airports.
I really, *really *don’t think it’s done because it has some advantage for the company (and they say ‘damn the effect on the traveler!’). It’s simply a matter that airline schedules are immensely complicated and, more importantly, tightly interwoven. IOW one small change or incident anywhere in the chain can have a ripple effect on several other flights in terms of schedule, departure/arrival times, and gate numbers.
I don’t see this as much of a problem. I’ve only had it happen a few times and the gates are almost always right next to each other (I’ve only flown domestic in the US)…
I suspect travellers prefer to wait in the general area, usually well supplied with shops and cafes, for a gate announcement, rather than being sent to one gate and then redirected to another. If that’s so, as long as there is a reasonable prospect of a gate change it makes sense for the airline not to announce the intended gate until shortly before travellers need to head off to there.
IME the boarding gate is barely big enough to seat everyone and gets pretty crowded as soon as they announce which gate. Also some people immediately start queuing even though there may be another 30 minutes before they will start letting people board.
Meanwhile there is no end of seating throughout the airport, most of it near to departure screens. I think it works pretty well in practice; people spread out and chill out. Usually.
The only counter-case is when they suddenly announce “now boarding” at a gate that is far away from the main concourse. It probably causes a lot of stress for people, particularly those who are elderly or infirm.
(I fly frequently, so I know in this situation the boarding time will be extended because it will take a lot of time before everyone can get there. But people who aren’t used to this might panic that they won’t make their flight).
A gate has been assigned. They just don’t announce it until travellers need to go there, (a) because the assignment may be changed, which would inconvenience passengers much more than having to wait around in the concourse does, and (b) because changed assignments would inconvenience airlines and the airport immensely, since some passengers wouldn’t discover the changed assignment until they turn up at boarding time at the wrong gate, which must inevitably delay the flight, and possibly (c) because the airport makes more money out of people waiting in the concourse waiting for the gate to be announced than they do from people waiting at the gate.
Heathrow is a hellish airport, and no monkeying around with the time at which gate assignments are announced will do much to change that.
Isn’t part of this kind of a chicken/egg thing? At most US airports, where you usually get a gate assignment very early, there’s nowhere else to wait and shops are scattered around the concourse rather than being concentrated around what I think Terminal 3 at Heathrow calls a “lounge.”
That was kind of the impression I got on my one trip through Heathrow. Most airports seem to have (for example) 10 gates with 200 seats at each gate, but not every gate will be prepping for a flight at all times. So why not have 10 gates with no seats and a central waiting area with seats (and amenities) for 1,500? It’s only a problem if you’re accustomed to other airports and then feel like you’re rushing to the gate for your flight.
As someone who has flown out of Heathrow (Mostly T5) quite often recently, I do not have any problem with this. Drop the baggage, have a nice breakfast and then head for security. Once through, buy a paper and some water and chill until the gate comes up on the screen. There is always plenty of time to get there, even though my wife can only walk slowly.
I flew out of Gatwick a few weeks ago with the wife. We were sitting at a bar in the South Terminal waiting for our gate assignment. After a couple of drinks - and with an hour left until departure - it still hadn’t been posted. We walked around for a few minutes (no more than 10) and then checked again. Now the board said GATE XX CLOSING AT [8 minutes from now]. What the fuck?
So we ran to our gate (and I note that it was so far from the lounge area that it took more than 8 minutes to run there), only to find boarding hadn’t even begun yet. Apparently they now do this at Gatwick as a matter of course. I don’t know why, but they’re assholes.
So anyway, Heathrow’s not so bad.
Well, yes, but so were most major international airports. The difference is that Heathrow serves a much larger proportion of widebody jets than almost any other airport. Theoretically it shouldn’t be quite so bad now that nearly all transatlantic flights are assigned to terminals 3 and 5.
Just a guess but maybe they get better facial recognition photos of everybody getting off, and on when there are only half the number of people present.
I’ve noticed this at Union Station in Los Angeles. Although Metrolink (local commuter rail) gates are posted hours ahead of time, the Amtrak trains almost never are, despite the fact that the same trains leave from the same tracks at the same time every single day.
My assumption has always been that because there is nothing preventing people from wandering onto a platform at any time (unlike some major train stations, Union Station does not have any physical barriers keeping people away from the tracks), they’re trying to prevent the Amtrak platforms from being clogged with people waiting to board. Otherwise, it would become very difficult for disembarking passengers from arriving trains and the various luggage carts to negotiate the narrow spaces.
From the article which included parody interviews of passengers on the plane that landed in the Hudson several years ago.
“Minutes later we were all squeezed onto the wing in the freezing cold waiting to be rescued and it occurred to me that this was actually much less crowded than Heathrow and with better facilities.”
That makes no sense, as you aren’t sitting relaxing at the bar (buying 10 point pints) you are standing in front of the announcement screen. That’s what makes it so frustrating, until the gate is announced you don’t know where you should be and when you should start heading over there.
Penn Station in NY and Washington is like this. There are no seats on the platform, so anyone waiting down there would have to stand and get in the way. Also there are two tracks per platform. Trains arrive and leave a lot more often than airplanes do at a gate, so there is no reason to wait.
A lot of train platforms are effectively outside, unlike airline gates (the one in Trenton NJ really is outside) so a large set of people wait in the waiting area until the train is called, though with only two tracks and not much traffic waiting on the platform is more reasonable.
In today’s US air travel large numbers of people are trying to get on as quickly as possible in order to have space for their carryon luggage. No chairs won’t keep them from standing by the gate anyhow.
Gates and platforms are after all designed to have people wait at them, that’s the reason they exist. They only possible reason is it allows the management to change gates at without having people trek across to the new gate. But that seems a pretty minor advantage, given the amount of grievance it causes customers.