urbanMSP

I think the T2 expansion gates are for Sun Country, Southwest and a possible entry of JetBlue.

Has that been officially decided? Last I had heard, there were a few options, including moving some T1 tenants to T2. But I also heard Sun Country would shoulder a couple more gates as well.

Aren't all gates at T2 set up as CUTE? I wonder if the Spirit gates at T1-D are CUTE as well. The efficiency of CUTE concept is compromised when you have these non-hubbers split between two terminals.

I think T2 gates are CUTE, however, Southwest is only set up at gates 7-10 with their unique boarding position pillars. I would imagine they have some temp process if they needed to use gates 1-6.
I am not aware re: T1 E gates.

There is just something about all the acronyms in this thread

We aren't even getting into airline codes much... B6, WN, F9, SY...

I hate jargon, it's a way to show off knowledge and hence exclude others. Its heavy use in the medical profession is explicitly meant to keep outsiders out, the same appears to be true here.

So smarty pantses, what the hell is cute? Besides the heavy use of that apparent acronym.

Common User Terminal Emulation as in Cute

We aren't even getting into airline codes much... B6, WN, F9, SY...

B6 is JetBlue
WN is Southwest
F9 is Frontier
SY is Sun Country
Don't want anybody to fell left out.

CUTE is the infrastructure needed to allow any airline to use any gate. It's much more common overseas and in newer/non-hub airports. The old way of doing things is that the airlines built/leased their own gates (in airports like JFK and ORD, they built their own terminals). Even Northwest built their own terminal at Detroit about 15 years ago. Now, airport operators are generally building common use gates and terminals, and airlines don't have full-time use of particular gates.

Common User Terminal Emulation as in Cute

Thank you. The picture made the whole thing worthwhile

Looks like Oliver

No official announcement from Sun Country, but it appears they are adding a route to Portland, OR.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... p-pdx.html

Nice to see competition on what is currently a Delta-only route. Alaska is launching service to PDX next month operated by SkyWest on an ERJ-175. Delta will still dominate of course, as the Sun Country flight will not be quite daily, and Alaska isn't on a mainline aircraft. It would have been nice to have the competition last summer when I waited too long to book and ended up flying through Phoenix on what was then US Airways...

Here's the info:
http://www.suncountry.com/page/1/Portla ... p_mobi=yes

Frontier has flights to PDX through Denver, but I'd guess the layover lengths are pretty bad. Tough to beat Frontier on price, but I bet Sun Country will come pretty close. The $139 introductory price (one-way) ain't too bad. Then again I just flew Frontier to Denver for $88 round trip, so I'm going to be biased about the cost of flights for a while.

Can I ask did the $88 include extras (bags, seats, etc)?

No extras, didn't need 'em. The free "personal item" allowance actually permitted a large backpack. As long as it fits under the seat in front of you, it's all good. FWIW, their bag fees are less than Spirit. $25 checked, $30 carry-on I think (paid in advance of course, will cost you more at the gate)

Escape Lounge at T1 was scheduled to open last week. Anyone been there yet?

Here's a tour from their soft open:
http://renespoints.boardingarea.com/201 ... es-points/

Good views of the alley between E and F.

What airlines all fly to Seattle? Any tend to be cheaper? Do they ever get much below $300?

I believe some of these have already been mentioned, but the Strib reports that 14 new routes are being added from MSP this year, across 7 airlines (according to the subtitle, but not the article body). It also says that the airport's fees are in the lower 1/3 for large hubs, but that doesn't really seem to jibe with other reporting I've heard over the years -- unless that's changed? (Though I think those other analyses have looked at total ticket prices, rather than just fees.)

http://www.startribune.com/more-options ... 366874481/