Miami Airport

After many experiences at MIA my family and I have decided it is worth paying more to avoid it. Aside from long lines for check-in and security the signage in the terminals is abysmal. We find that restaurants are not where signs say they are. We have also found that employees take luggage off of the belts and set in on the floor while passengers are standing at the belt waiting. We notice that people cut in line at MIA as if it were a sport. There is no signage indicating where to pick up the economy parking shuttle. When we found it it was on a traffic island between busy lanes of traffic on the upper level not on the same level as the rest of the shuttles! I'm not sure what the airport management does.

What a complete and utter nightmare. Having lived in Miami (but being from the UK) I have travelled in and out of this airport more times than I can care. Heathrow and Gatwick airports look like the Ritz and make Miami look like Econolodge. And as for airports like Dubai and Singapore they make you realise whoever is managing the overall airport (in the UK BAA manage a fair few airports and whatever you may say about them and UK airports there is definitely some sort of strategy to make the customer experience reasonably comfortable) is doing a terrible job. There is always a huge backlog at immigration. If your flight lands at around 3/4pm forget it. You are in competition with flights from all over the world landing at the same time. Then they have the ridiculous rule that you have to clear immigration then collect your bag (that's also a nightmare) then put it back on your connecting plane if you are in transit. Cue numerous people miss their connecting flights because Miami makes NO concessions for passengers in transit. At least JFK realise that this was a problem and provides Express Immigration for passengers who have a transit flight within 2hrs. All you have to do is make yourself known to a ground official and show them your boarding pass for the next flight and they issue you with am express pass. Miami may be a problem airport. They should start with an express service for passengers transiting within 2hrs of their plane arriving in Miami. Then they can slowly start to sort out the rest of the mess. The airlines should keep the pressure on as ultimately any problems that we experience as passengers will be fall in the hands of the airline as they are ultimately responsible for our safe and comfortable transit.

This must be one of the worst airports I have ever been through and I have travelled a lot. Never mind the endless passport queues and the rude staff that hardly speak English (good thing I speak some Spanish) what really annoyed me is that no attempt whatsoever is made to at least make it a bit less painful than it already is. After 45 minutes spent to go through passport control when you think the worse is probably over you get to the baggage hall and that's where it really starts. The hall was completely packed must have been 10 flights worth of people luggage had been taken off the belts and just stacked on the floor. No one was there to advise if your luggage had indeed arrived or if it was still on its way. When asked a staff member I just got a shrug and was told: "Don't know. Check in the pile on the floor if not wait by the belt". Eventually located suitcase and some bright spark decided to cordon off half of the exits so thousands of people were supposed to exit via 2 doors which were only accessible by walking through a narrow gap between two belts. Kids were screaming people pushing and shoving and the whole joy took approximately an other 45 minutes. Never again if I can avoid it.

We were in transit to the Bahamas. Flight arrived on time and was directed to a stand on the D concourse to find that the air bridge was faulty. It took 30 minutes for MIA to work this out. With bags unloaded and our connecting flight departure time a little over an hour away now we had to move to a different stand but the tug then broke down as it was attached to our plane. Another one was found and we went on to a new gate under planes own power only to get there and no tug vehicle available. 1 hour 40 minutes later we were able to disembark. Similar bad experience of other users below immigration slow and baggage hall not up to the job. Bags were not in the baggage hall when we arrived waited a further 40 minutes and they come out on several different carousels. All credit to American Airlines they held our connecting plane for over an hour but we still did not make it. Had to waste a night in a very expensive hotel in Bahamas and no recompense available. MIA should allow transit passengers to do just that transit through the airport. MIA would benefit in a separate process area for transit passengers and their baggage it would aid both transit and landing passengers. We travel on business weekly and will not use MIA again if possible and I strongly suggest you avoid this airport if you can.

This airport is a study in contrasts. It is clean good walking passageways plenty of shops etc. But on the D concourse (American Airlines) there is no signage in the main passageway indicating that there is a 4-stop train service at the top of the terminal. If you don't know you have to walk the approx 1/2 mile from one end of the concourse to the other. Only when we asked for directions did we find out about the elevators hidden away that took us to the train. It is a great service that whisks you from one end to the other in less than 5 minutes. On our trip back going through Passport Control Customs and TSA it took an hour to run the gauntlet even with 40 separate gates to service the thousand other incoming passengers (literally!). Everyone was in a hurry so there was a noticeable amount of line jumping. While the colored circles on the floor helped us to find our way they were hard to see with all the humanity around (with their luggage no less). You might be getting a significant amount of Latin America traffic at the airport so be prepared to hear instructions being yelled out in Spanish only - which of course doesn't help the French or German tourists or returning Americans just arriving. Next time we go on vacation in the Bahamas we're going to try to bypass Miami.

Travelators handy toilets a bit far. Queuing was somewhat long but I was able to tolerate it. Staff friendly but not very helpful. Upon exiting tried to look for shuttle bus to go to our hotel and staff told us to wait. After 45 mins the bus did not came. Apparently we had to call the hotel but the staff did not give any information about it. Clean fair number of facilities but could be better.

During the freeze of December 2010 in the UK and being unable to fly directly from London to Barbados we were re-routed via Miami Airport. Even though we were passing through Miami in transit - in other words we had no intention or desire to enter the USA we were forced to queue at immigration and treated like criminals having our fingerprints and photographs taken. The next obstacle was that although our luggage had been booked through to Barbados we had to retrieve them and queue once again at customs for almost an hour. Once we had passed through customs the real hell started. Airport officials kept on shouting at us in Spanish and one particularly charming one shoved me to the ground. Finally someone translated for us that we needed to push our luggage through a barrier to get them on a conveyer belt to our onward flight. The rest of the process getting on to our flight to Barbados was not much better. We are an elderly couple in our 60s who travel a lot we will certainly never attempt to go near the USA again to be exposed to such humiliation. Suggestions to Miami airport - Transit passengers should remain in transit and be transferred directly on to their onward flights. Ensure that airport officials are able to speak English! Train airport officials rules of courtesy and politeness.

Arrived Saturday 24 July from London and was pleasantly surprised by how easy the passage through immigration was. Short queue and through to collect baggage which was waiting for us. The walk from plane to immigration was longer than expected but when compared with Atlanta where we as family have waited over an hour after passing through immigration for bags to arrive this was much better experience. In all some 45 mins from landing to being on the shuttle to collect the hire car. Traveled home on 11 Aug no queue at check in and access to fast track through security made it very easy. Used the Club America F lounge very spacious and clean. Perhaps we were lucky but overall our experience of Miami from an arrival/departure perspective was very positive.

With building work still going on it's a mixed bag. International arrivals & immigration (as UK citizen) O.K. Easel in immigration with poster saying Arrivals with arrow then confusingly lots of corridors with signs to immigration!? Eventually picked up signs for Baggage Claim. Domestic arrivals okay except for truly appalling baggage claim carousels - just inside roadside doors where anyone can come and grab a bag. Have they learned anything from Phoenix? Check-in average poor where there is building work. Airport seems to be getting its act together but be prepared to walks miles!

Mixed review here. Arrived mid afternoon on CO. Signage is horrible. Followed signs for ground transportation - but no. Hotel shuttles are upstairs. Try and find an escalator to go back up. Then waiting on outer curb under 'Hotel Shuttles' sign only to notice all hotel shuttles are on inner curb. Check in for departure easy and fast lane at Security meant we were there only 10-15 minutes mid morning. Nice selection of shops on concourse but eating was limited.