AVOID MIA immigration........

I can't think of a better option, many Europeans try to avoid US immigration due to the 'issues' that sometimes arise....but I (non US citizen) prefer to minimize 10 hour trips specially if in Economy

EWR-PTY (or EWR to Central America in general) is an easy upgrade even for a silver

sounds like a no brainer to me to travel MAN-EWR-PTY

just have to be careful with connection times in bad weather (or even good weather)