Virgin Atlantic Flying Club - Connecting in Miami

I will possibly have a non-interlining connection in Miami when I come off a Virgin Atlantic flight in February. The connection will be on to a tiny 3 passenger Cessna plane operated by something called ExecAir which should take me to Naples in SW Florida, and the flight will leave at 7pm (with Virgin arriving at 5h15pm).

ExecAir told me that they are located near the International arrivals hall and the connection is doable, although I find 1 hour 45 minutes a bit on the slim side. It really depends on how fast immigration moves and how many people are there: there must be busy and busy times at Miami airport, like everywhere. ExecAir said that they will be able to track me in the airport, and will know where I am in the case of any slow-up. Sounds scary.

Any experience with such connections, or is it just nuts?

I have no experience with this type of connection but I would be leaving at least 1h45 for a non-interlining/different PNR connection at a normal airport so I'd definitely leave longer at MIA (unless ExecAir has more flexibility with regard to departure times).

Nuts :eek:.

Now on a good day you might do it, but on an average MIA day I wouldn't advise anyone to leave less than three hours. Immigration alone can be one to one and a half hours, add to that taxiing time, baggage time, finding and checking in time, going through security again time ... MIA is a pit!

Echoing the others. MIA immigration can be horrendous.

Sometimes you get segregated and go through your own (horrible) area with one slow moving queue. If BA or AA arrive at the same time, you might be queuing with up to 500-1000 cruise passengers!

And other times you're queuing up in the main hall with most of Central and South America getting grilled as to their intentions!

Neither are great. 1h45 would make me a bit twitchy. Surely the Cessna can adjust to your schedule?

Naples is just under 2 hours away by car, along 1 road. Just a thought, but you could ditch the ExecAir, rent a car, and drive.

Personally I wouldn't do this -- anxiety about the connection would ruin the transatlantic sector.

Thanks for the input, guys.. sorry about the delayed response, I was doing a road trip in N Spain (Asturias and Cantabria).

I quite agree that worrying about the connection could possibly ruin my flight experience, and I am looking forward to experiencing it. I wanted to avoid renting a car, just in case I had a few glasses too many on the flight.