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MIA - Check In - How Long?

MIA - Check In - How Long?

Old May 20, 2010, 7:45 am
  #1  
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MIA - Check In - How Long?

Flying tomorrow evening RDU-MIA-MGA with one checked bag. I hate checking bags but it is necessary in this case as I am taking lots of stuff for a friend that lives in Nicaragau.

I have an overnight stop-over at MIA. I am staying at MIA Marriott and taking their shuttle which they tell me runs every 15 minutes...

I must retrieve my checked bag at MIA and recheck the next morning.

My flight from MIA - MGA is at 11:15am

Although I have traveled thru MIA many times, I have never actually checked in there and haven't a clue how far in advance I should try to arrive.

I don't want to be rushed and stress... but also don't want to sit around the terminal longer than necessary.
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Old May 20, 2010, 9:31 am
  #2  
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Let's move this to our Travel->Florida forum for further discussion. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.
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Old May 20, 2010, 8:35 pm
  #3  
 
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fwiw, I travel to/from MIA several times a year on UA (Terminal J) and am most often flying out on a weekday around 3:45 PM.

The most recent trip, earlier this month was the first time I EVER breezed through security.

I'm thinking they either staffed up and perhaps, finally, placed a TSA id checker to handle the elite line.

Every other trip took at least 30-45 minutes to be screened. There was always an elite line but then it blended in with the regular line creating a bottle neck and the whole process seemed to slow down to a crawl.

Now, I've never checked a bag, but this last trip, did have reason to stop at the counter to ask about my flight.

Again, I was in the 1K line with the agent helping 1 person and no else in line.

There were only 2 UA agents and yet both took forever to check in those passengers.

Plus, neither seemed to be all that knowledgeable and had to ask a supervisor several questions. I almost left but then an agent was free.

I simply asked to be put on the volunteer list for my flight. He took my ticket, punched some keys and handed it back.

As I spent waay too long there, I took the boarding pass and later saw that the agent did not do as I asked but rather printed me out a confirmation for an upgrade that I was already waitlisted for.

That said, UA is really not interested in serving MIA so I shouldn't have expected much better.

Bottom Line: Err on the side of giving yourself plenty of time. However, if you're flying AA or perhaps, even DL I've heard folks have better experiences
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