Miami Airport

I was in Miami airport on the Monday before Easter and Wednesday after Easter in 2 different areas transiting between the Caribbean and England and nothing has improved here. The queues are long and take for ever the officers have to hunt on the computer take photos and finger and thumb prints for everyone golf bags are always opened up and a note left to excuse the bad refastening and for people who simply want to transit onto another flight and not spend a moment more than necessary in the USA it is a nightmare worth avoiding. Not much different to LAX which is in the same league. Surely some one can work a transit system out at the 4 or 5 big hubs so transit passengers can be treated as in all other countries.

What can I say about Miami airport other than what a complete nightmare! It starts as soon as you hit the tarmac get off the plane and discover a mass of people all trying to get through immigration. Immigration itself took me around an hour which wasnt as bad as the 2 hours last time I visited. They make you stand - even the elderly and then interrogate you like a criminal taking finger prints and photos. Then you get through to the baggage lounge where your bags have been dumped in the middle of the room as there isnt enough room on the belt! It then takes you another 15minutes of pushing and being pushed to get out of the ridiculously small baggage claims area. By the time this happened it was dark and I had to then stand outside trying to flag down my hotels complimentary shuttle bus. On my return back to the UK I arrived at the airport very early and waited patiently as the bag drop desk for Virgin Atlantic opened. Once it did I checked in and was then told to take my bags with me to a special designated bag scanning area. Took my bags there but the machine was broken and the a lot of bags were being piled up (not exactly a safe and secure method if you ask me). Anybody could have walked off with the bags! Anyhow they eventually sorted it out and were taking bags somewhere else for us (or should I say one guy was). the departure gate area F is dark and in need of brightening up. The toilets were disgusting. The shops are appalling and the only food options is junk food. Out of all the airports in the world this has to be the worst I've visited.

Travelled LHR to MIA and arrived at rear of 90 min queue for immigration late afternoon. Lucky we changed our plans 2 months earlier as a result of reading this site. We had allowed 1 hr 45 mins to change to AA flight to Cancun which was OK with airlines who allow 1 hr 35 for transfer but clearly not enough time. We therefore stayed overnight and travelled the next day. On our return flight it could not have been more different we arrived early afternoon and there were no queues at all we were through immigration in 5 mins. That was great but we will never transfer through an airport again unless we can overnight as you just don't know how long the Immigration Q will be not just in the USA but worldwide. Miami is an older airport in the BA and AA areas and reminded me of 1960's 'Thunderbirds' film settings. Real vintage stuff but it has all you need with regard to toilets and food. Passenger search was reasonably quick and no complaints there. It is confusing checking in with AA but if you memorise the airport layout on the website you get an idea of where to go to checkin which helped us find BA check-in.

I mostly agree with Vincent Smith's comments. MIA is not a particularly pleasant airport but that does mostly apply to the older AA-dominated terminal(s) and to non-US residents going through immigration. However having said that I fly out of MIA constantly on international flights and rarely am held up due to the fact that I am an AA frequent flyer so get fast- tracked through baggage check. The new terminals are fine and will be a big improvement. As to Spanish and Creole-speaking staff most travelers are from Latin America and the Caribbean however all customer service staff speak English. If you are addressed in Spanish once they realize that you don't speak it they will switch to English. US residents rarely wait more than 15 minutes in immigration and officials have always been polite in my experience. Non- resident friends have complained. However even US citizens may be subject to questioning and stopped at Customs and asked lengthy questions about the purpose of their trip. Duty-free is almost non-existent baggage claim in the old terminals is utter chaos.

Do not clear immigration in Miami if you are not capable of walking a long long distance. My husband and I are in our 70's and last month came home from the Caribbean through Miami. Our plane landed at the very farthest point from immigration and we were concerned we might not be able to complete the walk. We did not have long to wait at the Immigration line but had a heck of a time trying to figure out what carousel our luggage came in on. There were mobs of people and no help!

Good to read some positive reviews here but my advice is to prepare for the worst if you ever have the misfortune to go through MIA in transit. Having read some reviews here I changed my return flight to a later one as it seemed that 2 hours would not be enough to go through immigration & customs. New arrangements provided for 4.5 hours. Well I'm glad I did. After a 15 minute run from the plane I joined a queue at immigration at 5.45pm and was finally granted permission to enter the USA at 7.30pm. Some people in my queue and those adjacent were pulled for questioning by officials after queuing already for an hour or more. Guess they didn't make their connections. The baggage bit was hopeless - despite being told that I would have to collect my bag and go through customs to clear it and recheck it it wasn't on the carousel (no signs telling you what carousel to go to - you just have to wander up and down and hope you can spot your flight). Piles of bags everywhere - some of them were from flights which had landed several hours earlier. The concept of customer service is clearly non-existent in staff at this airport: to get help I had to break up conversations between staff who would have quote happily chatted indefinitely looking at pictures on their mobile phones flirting with each other etc. if I hadn't forced my way into their conversation. Turns out that despite what my Air Jamaica people were told in JA my bag was checked through already (apparently) though the staff at my departure gate denied this. I did have to check in again at Departures and eventually arrived at my gate at 9pm for a 9.30 flight. Concourse E - dismal place rubbish facilities (hot dogs and a tiny Pizza Hut concession - and that's about it). My bag did reappear in London. I dislike Heathrow and UK airports in general but it seemed like a paradise of good signage helpful staff and logical transit arrangements by comparison. If I can avoid it I will never go to MIA again nor will I book flights requiring a transit at a US airport - nearly missed my connection on the way out at JFK because of a 50 minute wait for baggage and being misadvised about transfer of luggage to next flight from different terminal. But that's another story.

The new terminals are exceptionally attractive organized and comfortable. If checking in with a pre-printed boarding pass and carry-on only I can make it from curbside to gate in under 30 minutes for domestic flights. The food options in the airport are good and service is generally above- average for Miami.

First time flying in and out of the new South Terminal complex. Finally there is a modern and clean section to this airport with upgraded store selections compared to other terminals. On the downside it is very far and alot of walking when arriving in Terminal H and going to Immigration and Customs in Terminal J. Why the moving walkway in secured Terminal H was not done in sections so that more gates can utilize this system is beyond comprehension. Fastest and most pleasant TSA check in any busy major US airport This was the nicest part of the South Terminal complex

Even though the new E terminal is modern and spacious the rest of the airport falls behind. Arrivals area for international flights at D is shabby looking cramped confusing. Transferring between flights as noted by another reader is a joke. To recheck a bag one must leave the secure area follow some a path of yellow dots which lead only back to the terminal. Signage is unclear confusing. There's no intra-terminal TSA clearance like other major airport. It seems the airport has gotten better from a few years ago when I was there last but my biggest pet peeve about MIA is that the airport official language is Spanish not English. I was given directions several by airport staff in Spanish!

Good but not great airport. It was spacious and clean though signage to our terminal was a bit tricky. Security check was not an issue. I was in the LTU/Air Berlin terminal and they only had a sandwich stand and newspaper shop after security which was very disappointing. Also upon arrival from Germany it was a long walk to passport control and they only had customs reports in Spanish! From my recent knowledge Miami is still part of the USA. It wasn't a perfect experience but I would have no big worries about using MIA again.