jcjchung

Has anyone experienced the new AA terminal?

Are they quicker at processing international transfers and are there express lanes for First Class passengers?

We are on non-US passports. Arriving from cancun at 0935 and transferring to caribbean departing 1120. Do i have enough time?

What happens if I miss my connecting flight? Is AA good at putting you on the next flight?

ESpen36

Arriving at 9:35 and departing international at 11:20 (meaning boarding at 10:35) is VERY, VERY tight, especially for non-US residents. If you have checked bags, I would say don't even try it. With carry-on bags only, it's possible but not likely. MIA is a mess.

The only thing going for you is that your 9:35am arrival is a little bit ahead of most of the early-morning Caribbean and Central American arrivals. By 10:30 the passport control and customs areas are a CF with the pax from these flights.

If you do miss your flight, AA will put you on a later flight. Theoretically, your QF status should help you with priority reaccommodation. Furthermore, you should have no problem using the Admirals Clubs in E and D concourses given your status. I would go straight there in the event of any kind of issue and they will take care of you.

Best of luck to you!

serfty

Hmmm ... what might MIA be like on a Sunday Afternoon?

Scheduled arrival from MEX at 3:05pm and departing for DFW at 5:25pm. (I guess that means boarding at 4:40pm.)

MIKESILV

Do you really want to know? offhand.. Sunday eves.. in my experience the busiest period for the entire week.
Think pax going home to SA and Caribeean or coming back after the weekend, tourists visting the area and to/from the myriad criuse ships trying to get home. I personally I try to leave there either much later in the afternoon or well before noon.

On another note lets see now I count 8 + widebodies arriving before 830 am
INS wont be busy?

mike

serfty

Hopefully, those wide bodies will be cleared by the afternoon

Crowds don't worry me, it's mainly the immigration queues and getting off the 738, through immigration, security and to the 757 gate to DFW (with maybe a little respite in the F/L). At least I'm booked in the pointy end.

Happy

Very bad. The cruise ship passengers alone would make MIA and FLL to be avoided on Sunday.

Pedler

Sunday is bad for arrivals, Monday midday 8am-3pm is probably the worst for departing as the ships are usually dropping off their weekend catch...

MIKESILV

The problem is that after get through immigration/cutoms you then have to fit the hordes and re-enter security to get to your gate.
My reference regarding the widebodies was the idea posted earlier that airport would be not be quite as busy with incoming pax before 930 am.

mike

MARINFLL

Jcjchung and Serfty - these connections seem VERY tight for MIA on a Sunday especially. Everything seems to run slower in MIA for logistics (baggage, ticketing, immigration esp for non US citizens) than most other AA hubs. Perhaps a bit of "latin time" is going on. Normally I would say that 2 hours would be tight for a non- US citizen with checked bags, but on a sunday things are very busy - even worse in the afternoon.

As someone else posted, you can probably relax and don't worry too much because if you miss your connection your status should have them take care of your reservation and book you on the next flight. You noted that you were going to the "Carribean" but didn't say where. Many islands have several fights per day, but some of the smaller ones may only have 1 or 2 on AA metal. Hopefully things will work out.

For Serfty heading to DFW, your connection being in the afternoon on a Sunday and with even less than a 2 hour window will be tight if you have a checked bag and not a US citizen. The good news is that there is a 6:50 MIA-DFW flight, and worst case the last flight between MIA and DFW leaves at 840pm. If DFW is you final destination, you'll probably get there for sure Sunday. If you have connections from DFW, unless they're west coast, you may have problems if you dont get on your scheduled flight.

Marc

jcjchung

Ive just paid to change to arrive MIA the night before before hoping on a plane to St Martin.

What is the transfer time like at San Juan? I have a 2 hour transit time between arriving from Anguilla transferring onto JFK.

UncleDude

Whilst Parts of the Departure area may be new, there is still the OLD...Very OLD 'E' Gates and Satellite in use.

International Immigration and Customs are still all in the Old D/E Gates Arrivals areas

No Fastrack for Premium Passengers.

Clearance can be anything from 10 minutes to 100 minutes YMMV.

Connecting Flights . Transferring to Caribbean is somewhat vague, Nassau of course with lots of flights would not normally be a problem but some other destinations with only 2 or 3 flights a day might be more difficult.

If you miss your flight due to Immigration delay and have no status you are very much near the bottom of the Standby List if the onward flights are full. Now see you are OneWorld Sapphire..that should move you up somewhat, at least with AA Mainline, you can never be sure with Eagle who IMHO seem to have their own policy at MIA.

nbevan

In defence of MIA, I have connected from the UK several times this year (including a Sunday afternoon) and it has never taken me more than 20 minutes to get through immigration as a visitor (hint: choose the far left lines that go round the corner).

I have had no checked bags and the benefit of fast track reentry, but even without those the MCT of 95 minutes should be doable, and 2 hours comfortable.

nbevan

What I like about MIA is the quirks and uncertainties, the strange corridors and the children's art. Like the AAdvantage program, it takes a long time to find your way round. Life would be so boring if everywhere was like DFW. I would not be a frequent flyer if I wanted an easy life!

emma dog

Once again it's painfully obvious that most of the MIA bashers haven't actually been to MIA in over a year.

Yes, during the early phases of the renovation you walked through a dungeon-like corridor to get into the C gates... at times I wondered if someone was going to pop out from behind the next turn and jump me. But this Spring the corridor between the D gates and the E gates dramatically improved and is on-par with the ORD G-H transfer. C is no longer. And the D terminal is on par with DFW's D terminal strictly in terms of walkability (yes, it can get long, and yes the food options are incomparable between the two).

I can't say I've seen children's art in the past couple of years.



Seriously... MIA has really improved in the past couple of years with the progression of the renovations.

::sigh:: I know I really sound like a MIA cheerleader... but I'd take MIA over many other hubs any day. Each has their own issues... I avoid ORD because of delays and weather. DFW isn't bad except for the long transits between gates and the lack of amenities in some of the older terminals. IAD has moon buggies. ATL is far too big. SFO has weather issues. DEN goes on ad-infinitum. JFK has weather and congestion delays. No plane ever departs EWR on time. MSP is way too big and it's difficult to transit from the West side of the airport to the commuter planes. PHL is a dump. They all have issues.

nbevan

Either you haven't been down the D-E corridor recently (which I frequent on my way to the FL) or you may be in too much of a hurry .

As a fan of modern art, I find it really quite impressive (and more stimulating than the professional display round the corner in E).