Originally Posted by
Vinotraveller
Many thanks for that - just weighing up some different holiday options in the Caribbean for early December, but think I'll stick with destinations that BA serves directly to save on travel time and hassle in that case.
You might want to reconsider that, depending on where you go. Connecting on AA gives you lots more options of destinations and flight timings, and also gives you a much better product than those knackered old Gatwick 777's. I do quite a lot to avoid travelling on one of them again, where possible!
Originally Posted by
Firipu
Did an ITI transfer at Miami earlier this year on the way to Bolivia. Immigration at MIA was actually quite smooth. They had a lot of self processing machines and I was through with minimal waiting time. Though I think this also highly depends on whether you have other international flights arriving at the same time as you. Bags were also checked all the way through to LPB.
I agree - I've been thro MIA (and to a lesser extent DFW) alot in the last few years, connecting to/from Latin America and the Caribbean. Except for the fact that my passport fails the self service immigration machines EVERY SINGLE TIME, it'd actually be really quick. My colleagues are almost always straight thro and having to wait for me on the other side. Of course, there's a few tricks, like which bank of self-service machines to use, and then which security check to go through to get back airside, but there's a fair bit of info on that elsewhere on this forum.
So on balance, even with my passport issues, I'd have a strong preference for the connecting option, in order to go ex LHR and with a greater choice of route/flight...