susiesan

I will be flying in J from MIA to SCL on AA award tickets in February. I will arrive at MIA from AA flights. During the layover at Miami, which is the better lounge, the AA one or the LATAM one? I will also return from SCL to MIA in J connecting on to AA flights. and am wondering about an arrival lounge. Does LATAM have one at MIA?

Eastbay1K

Use the lounge in your departure terminal - the LA and AA gates are not connected airside. For an arrival lounge, just go through arrival formalities and use the AA lounge for your shower, etc.

chalten

LATAM lounge is bad as never before...

SenSCL

The LATAM lounge in concourse J is a contractor lounge which they share with several other airlines and it tends to be quite crowded for the LA evening departure. Catering is nothing to write home about either.

As MIA is a major hub for them, AA has a couple of lounges there, but, as mentioned before, these are located at the opposite side of the terminal and unless you are fond of long walks and enjoy double TSA screenings (not sure, if they would even let you through with a LA boarding pass), they are not really an option when flying on LA. While poorish in terms of their culinary offer (love their soda machines though, where you can do the weirdest mixes), these lounges are modern and feel quite spacious.

Allegedly, AA have just opened a new flagship lounge in MIA which I hope to experience tomorrow, when I am transiting en route to SDQ

Eastbay1K

There's also the BA/IB etc. lounge (don't recall the name) in the E gates that isn't bad, and is easily accessible from D. They have a decent complimentary bubbles offering, but the F&B was not spectacular on my one visit.

dkc192

How long is your layover? If you have enough time, my suggestion would be to hit up the AA FL on arrival for a nice (by J class lounge standards in the US, at least) dinner, and then head over to concourse J at about T-80 or 90. If you have time between reclearing security and boarding, you can stop by the LA contract lounge for a bit.

susiesan

Our layover outbound is 3 hours, from 6:15pm to9:30 pm, dinnertime. We will arrive MIA from a DFW flight so I don't know what terminal we will come in to. I should have access to the new FL lounge but not the dining as we are in J not F on the LAN flight. I think I'll start in the FL lounge then walk over to the departure terminal for the LAN flight to SCL as you suggest.

MfromL

Plan one hour at least to transfer between D-E terminals and the international terminal. Walking can be, what, 20 minutes? TSA and walking to the gate might make it another 20.

susiesan

Yikes, that's a hike. This has got to be one of the longest walks for a transfer from one terminal to another. Good thing we have 3 hours.

MfromL

There are automatic movers or however they are called in the arrivals level (which usually feels longer...) or your can connect via the ticketing level too, but people moving, lines, etc. It might be a bit under 20, but I am thinking that you might have at least one carry on, and not willing to run. If you do, you can probably do it in a little bit more than five minutes.

edit: happy horizontal people transporters.

PABLOCO

We just flew out of Mia like 6 days before the new AA lounge was open, so i was not able to visit it. But i did visit the old AA lounge and i didnt like it ... well i hate all the old AA lounges since you where only able to get chesse and some cookies as a snack and i hate the drink vouchers or coupons.

I dont like the Latam lounge on Miami since gets really crowded and the people is really noisy (lots of kids). But i will take it before the old AA lounge

MfromL

don't forget about the hummus and the pita chips... that hardly compares to the Santiago AC's sushi