Miami Airport

Never again. After a delayed American Airways flight we were concerned that our planned 6.5 hour transit time had reduced to 3 hours. The queues through passport control were very long, our baggage took an age to appear, baggage trolley cost an outrageous $5, then there was the astonishingly long line to get through customs control. Whenever we asked if, as transit passengers, we really needed to go through this channel we were shouted at to "Get in Line". Finding our way to the check in for our onward flight was confusing and extremely frustrating. Eventually, a very kindly security guard recognised our distress and directed us to our destination. By this time we were worried that we would miss our flight as we had passed the "gate closed" deadline. Thankfully we made it, just. As a couple well over 70, one of us having an obvious medical problem (broken shoulder) we would never transit Miami again. On our arrival at Heathrow we found our luggage had stayed in Miami - both cases having been opened and inspected by security.

Passport control is a hot mess and the lines are ridiculously long after which one must pick up luggage and pass through customs. This process in an efficient airport with adequate personnel should not take 3 hours or more and cause people to miss connecting flights! I do not recommend transit through this airport!

This is the 4th visit and each time it is the same long wait, this time the walk was extremely long, I am very fit so not a problem but I did feel sorry for the elderly. The passport staff are sad looking people, they look too authoritative and scare one off from entering, perhaps the management should look at all the reviews and realise that there is a problem. My view of the problem is they don't seem to like speaking English, they prefer Spanish and they seem to think this is little Cuba. Nothing has changed in 7yrs, so will fly to a different airport next time.

One of the worst experiences. Airport looks like it was frozen in the 80's and thawed out recently. Musty smell, endless corridors and airport employees yelling at you to give you indications. I felt really uncomfortable, as well as other people, often misguided tourists. The airport should review its methods of recruitment, since many employees are unfit to deal with international tourists and often rude. Bad, bad experience.

The worst airport in the US. Unbelievably long waits at security even for TSA Pre-check. Long walk to gates if flying American. Last arrival I waited over 40 minutes for a bag despite it being marked priority. The rental car center is nice but you will walk forever to get there and will be exhausted if you have any luggage at all. Be certain you have a GPS when leaving the rental car center otherwise you will get lost. There are essentially no signs as one leaves the airport and the locals drive like maniacs. I would use FLL when I come to Miami but my destination is south of MIA so it's quite a drive. It might be best to avoid south Florida altogether.

Awful airport whether arriving on an international flight or flying out on a domestic flight. Check in service is chaotic at best with both airport and airline staff being rude and unhelpful. Arriving on international flights is worse. Aside from being 'greeted' by one of the worst passport controls you should also expect missing any connections less than three hours as the horrible service will ensure you will not make your connection. Offerings are poor from charging stations to free wifi. Food amenities are basic at best with some decent local fare but nothing akin to other major international airports. Ground transport is poor but has lot of car rental offerings. Not much improvement in last 25 years. Suggest you try going to FLL instead.

Another horrendous passport control issue to add 2 hours of queuing. The border staff are slow and rude. I will avoid Miami from now on.

We travel through Miami approx four times per year but it has been so bad of late that we have decided no more. There are other options and we have decided that the inconvenience and potential extra expense are worth it. The length of line and rudeness of staff are incredible in a country like the US - as a widely travelled person I have never heard an airport official swear but in front of many people kids included out came a volley of f's and b's like you've never heard! They just don't seem to care. The main issue is the airport taking many more flights on to make plenty of cash - they really do deserve themselves just a disgrace.

We were booked on a cruise sailing out of Miami - Dodge Island and off a 10 hour flight we were greeted by a mile walk to "passport control". We had already completed the ESTA visa waiver before we left and paid $17 so thought it would be a formality. We then queued for an hour to use one of 50 or so automated Immigration scanners which scanned passport finger prints and photo and usual questions and gleefully got a receipt. Great I thought that's us out of here! But No we then queued again for over an hour to be finger printed and photographed again by a US Immigration official at a booth and questioned on our visit and passport stamped. We then went to collect our luggage which had been removed from the carousel and then queued again to leave the terminal for anther 1/2 an hour and yet another immigration official taking our landing card and checking our passports! The U.S. Immigration process is a total joke why can't they just let us leave the airport?

Our overseas departure from MIA went fine. No long lines or rude TSA employees. Coming back however was the trip from hell. We arrived at the farthest possible point to immigration and customs. After what seemed like a 1+ mile hike we arrived to find the lines for immigration were more than 1/4 mile long! All the wait was because of the passport control kiosks. People were spending considerable amount of time trying to (1) figure them out and (2) waiting for help from the contract employees. At some the cameras didn't work etc. Then after this wait we ended up in yet another long line just so a "real" border patrol person could stamp our receipt from the kiosk. The baggage area was a zoo. Took us awhile to find our bags as there were literally hundreds laying on the floor off the carousels because people were still in lines at immigration! After customs we followed the signs for hotel pickup. Only problem here is the signs just quit so we didn't know where to wait. Finally had to ask. We will try very hard not to enter the US in MIA.