Northwest sends you a text message before your flight to notify you of your departure time. This is a useful feature because it confirms that your flight is on-time or delayed. So the text message reads:

(Northwest Departure Status) NW 218 June 2 ON TIME to depart MSP at 5:35 pm and arrive PDX at 7:31 pm Gate D6.

From this I surmise that I leave MSP at 5:35 from gate D6. Being a power user of the airport I will use the mid-terminal carry-on only security line. So I hit the terminal and head to gate D6… Only to find out that the flight is not even leaving from that terminal!

It turns out that D6 is the arrival gate in PDX. That is stupid! When I am heading to the airport I want to know what gate I am leaving from.. I really don’t care what gate I arrive at.

So this is a usability exception for me. Texting the departure gate would make way more sense to me than the arrival gate.