MIA advice please

I have managed to bag some G's on VS005 next month and on the way out we are flying straight on to Tampa with AA. We have flexible tickets and the best connecting flight would be the 1800 hrs as the next one doesn't leave until 2230 hrs.

I haven't been through Miami airport for 10 years so just wondered if those in the know could give me some idea if the 1800 hrs connecting flight is possible, or should we just chill and accept it's a non starter?

Thanks in advance. y)

Jacki

[Darren Wheeler]

Given that the scheduled arrive of the 5 is 16:05 and how notorious MIA immigration is, I'd say 18:00 is too tight to land, taxi, disembark do immigration and customs, then check-in and bag-drop.

[Neil]

When we went through MIA with a connection to MCO, we were off the a/c, through immigration, bags collected, dropped back off again (the transit bag drop off area is straight past customs, assume you will have done OLCI for your internal earlier before you leave the UK), and back through security in 45mins.

I know I have read many reports of bad experiences, but we had less than a 2 hour connection and it was a breeze for us.

If it were me, I would go for the 6pm, and if you do get delayed, you should be able to move to the later flight anyway (either for free or a small fee) providing there is space.

We were through customs in around 10 mins at Xmas! Usually takes between 1 to 2 hours in the past so not sure if this was a one off!

Thanks everyone - great advice. We will try for the early flight as on a good day it appears we could catch it, and hope we can default to the later one if necessary.

Jacki