Cate_anne

Hi, I’m booked on the BA207 flight from Heathrow to Miami in a few months’ time, where I will connect for Costa Rica (second flight is American Airlines - but all booked through BA). The connection is about 2.5hours.

I have been keeping an eye on Flight Radar and the 207 is consistently delayed, sometimes for as much as 2 hours. This has me worried about making the connection, and my major worry is losing my luggage. It will spoil the trip if I arrive without it. Wondering if it would be better to try and travel hand-luggage only?

Hugely grateful for any advice or experience that can be shared on here.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

On one ticket you will be protected onto the next available flight.

I think Miami is one of the few US airports that has ITI luggage transfer ( ie International to International) without the luggage having to be picked up .
You would still have to do immigration and walk through customs then security for the next flight but your luggage would be transferred,

That being said I would still carry some clothes in your carry on

Regards

TBS

NWIFlyer

Cate_anne, welcome to FT and the BA forum.

Delays are a fact of life I'm afraid, but 2.5 hours is a reasonable connection time. There are many here who will be intimately acquainted with MIA, but certainly if you read through various threads you'll hear a narrative of much improved immigration times so there's a really good chance you'll make your connection anyway.

In terms of luggage, many of us here are very firm advocates of hand baggage only, but if you can't manage that then your bags will just get transferred to your next flight (or at most US airports, you'll collect yourself and re-check). MIA is still, I believe, an exception to that and your bags get automatically transferred.

Should you miss your connection, you'll be automatically rebooked to the next flight. The biggest danger here is that if you're in J or higher, you may be downgraded because AA will have upgraded their own elites into F in the interim.

Cate_anne

Thank you both and thanks for the welcome

That has set my mind at ease, thanks.

Can I ask why most on here prefer to fly with hand luggage only?

I will be joining a tour in Costa Rica the day after I arrive, so will not be able to wait more than 24h for my luggage if it were to get lost. I can try to pack light and take only hand luggage, but it would mean a lot of compromise.

Thanks for the information it has put my mind at rest.

Kumulani

It saves money. It saves time, sometimes a lot of time, at the airport - both at the check in desk on departure, and the baggage carousel on arrival. It eliminates the risk of your bags not making a flight, which most frequent flyers have experienced at least once before.

cosmo74

I've connected through Miami on a shorter time frame with a delayed inbound and the baggage made it (I can't go on a two week holiday with hand luggage). You don't have to collect and recheck baggage in Miami which makes the whole process quicker and easier. It's just getting through immigration in time that you really need to worry about...

sammyg901

If your connection is tight as you come off the aircraft look out for AA reps with orange "express connection" tags calling out connections. They may have one for you and this will expediate your transit

richiejv

Tested this out very recently (Heathrow-Miami-Cancun, all on AA). As an international-to-international transfer, our bags were checked through to Cancun and didn't need collecting in Miami (double check this with the check-in agent though as our one had to specifically mark it as ITI).

We had a 1hr 44min connection; it took 45 mins between getting off the plane and getting into the AA lounge, and a good five minutes of that was spent faffing around trying to find the AA desk to get our boarding passes for the second flight as we forgot to get them in Heathrow. Assuming no delays on the LHR-MIA flight, you'll be absolutely fine with your connection time.

2358

Does Miami have Global Entry for arrivals?

flyingbee

I often make trips where I can’t fit everything into hand luggage only (for example multi-day professional events where I need multiple outfits of different types and appropriate footwear).

My approach is to take two small hand luggage size suitcases and check one in. I keep as hand luggage the absolute essentials and then in the checked case I put the extras. This means that if my checked luggage doesn’t arrive it’s an inconvenience, but I don’t need to go shopping to get replacements, I can generally manage (especially if the missing case arrived 24 hours later). I also put an Air Tag in the case that I check-in so that I can see if it has made the connection.

The one time I arrived at MIA on BA earlier this year there was no immigration queue at the area where the flight arrived. I found that arriving into MIA on AA, the immigration hall used is much bigger and the queue was much longer (many arriving AA flights). If you’re returning home via MIA arriving into MIA on AA you will likely have this. The three times I did it I waited between 30 and 60 minutes which is fine if you join the queue expecting a 60 minute wait. I also noticed that the staff fast-track passengers with a short connection. And my checked luggage was automatically transferred at MIA.

hon2

Yes they do and is pretty fast. AA/BA terminal faster even than J gates

Confus

I nearly always check bags for an easier journey - sometimes you can ignore the ‘wisdom’ on the forum! The one bit of advice I’d give here though is to make sure at check-in you ask for the I-I note to be added (the agent will know what you mean). They should do it automatically but it’s easily forgotten - it’ll mean your bags are taken all the way through.

Cate_anne

Thanks so much everyone for all your advice and information - really appreciate it, I haven’t flown via the US before and it’s been many years since I flew long haul, so this is all very valuable info to me.

Thanks for the packing tip too, two cabin size cases sounds like it would work really well.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Also remember you will need to apply for an ESTA as you will be entering the US ( unless you have a US passport)
Regards

TBS

msm2000uk

It does - just keep an eye on the signs.

M