MIA clarification/recommendation for lounge access
 

Sorry for entering your AA forum without permission, for I am a lowly Star Alliance flyer :)

I'm flying all STAR through MIA this Monday and I want to relax in a lounge and mooch wifi/booze. Looks like I'm SOL with star so I don't mind paying (or if someone was feeling like guesting me in haha) because I've got like 5 hours between flights.

1. The AA agent over the phone didn't sound TOO sure, but you guys would know...can I buy a 1-day pass and use it despite the fact I'm not flying AA or any oneworld partners?

2. I understand there are multiple Admirals clubs, I'm arriving in concourse J and departing the same but I don't mind walking around the airport, I've done that a few times at MIA. So which lounge would you recommend?

Edit: Found on the AA site that it wasn't single entry, it's single day entry.

Also it seems like US Air club passes are valid only when flying with them, but AA doesn't say so I THINK I'm ok. Hopefully someone knows for sure though.

Since AA uses Concourse D and E, neither of which are connected to other concourses so you won't be able to access the ACs.

The only airline lounge in concourse J is the Delta Sky Club, which is decent and has computer stations as well as wifi for free. You should be able to buy a day pass there. Note that it is a small lounge and it is shared by many airlines.

You can buy an AA AAdmirals Club one-day pass even if not on AA flights. Can't answer whether you'd be able to get to the AAdmirals club from your *A flights though.

Strange, I thought once you passed security you could get to whichever at MIA. Guess I shouldn't have bought this thing before getting responses. I'll just have to find a different airport to use it at in the next year I suppose.

No. The H and J concourses are entirely separated from the rest of the airport (although there is a long hallway that connects H and J) so you won't be able to access the AA concourses unless your ticket says you are departing from those.

Your only choice really is to pay for a one-day pass at the Delta Sky Club.

So...I arrived in J, and asked a TSA agent and she unequivocally said "you can enter through any checkpoint you want". So I did just that. Walked over, saw the line for Terminal D, passed, went to terminal E checkpoint, went right in, told the TSA what I was doing, no issues at all. Writing this from the D30 Admiral's Club :). I can report it's nice and big, no desks it seems, but it's not busy either which is nice.