Arriving at MIA

Off to a hopefully warm Florida on Monday
It's years since MIA was my initial entry point but I remember it as a bit of a scrum to say the least! Have things improved at all, and have you any tips to make my arrival a better experience?
I will be on an A380 along with hundreds of others and my days of running to immigration are long gone, if I remember correctly it can be more of a marathon than a sprint

Never had a good experience trying to get through MIA. Always long queues in immigration. Take a good book and a chair!

It is still a marathon walk. They have shuttle buggys so if you don't think you can walk the 20 mins, grab one ASAP! As you have to basically walk to the north terminal for the immigration point. It's still a scrum when the VS005 lands to get through CBP but you should be ok.

Use the ESTA Machines however there is two sets so keep an eye on which one would be quicker. I had to wait at the Global Entry machines cause some *ahem* people who can't read thought they could just use these ones instead of the ETSA one. Luckily this was picked up quickly by the staff and 15x people ejected from the GE queue which caused hilarious upset to these 15 or so people. I was out in about 40 minutes from plane to MIA Mover. Not quite my MIA record of plane to beach within an hour!

Off to a hopefully warm Florida on Monday
It's years since MIA was my initial entry point but I remember it as a bit of a scrum to say the least! Have things improved at all, and have you any tips to make my arrival a better experience?
I will be on an A380 along with hundreds of others and my days of running to immigration are long gone, if I remember correctly it can be more of a marathon than a sprint

Currently a very nice sounding 79f in Miami, not that I am checking regularly ha! ha! ahead of our arrival next Friday.

Although really looking forward to our holiday, from what I have read I am not particularly releshing the prospect of the Miami International experience for either arrival or departure

I was there two weeks ago and my parents just arrived this morning the VS6 - it was indeed very balmy. I've discovered 79F is my perfect temperature. With the breeze on the beach, it was extremely pleasant.

[mitchja]

MIA arrivals is much easier now the ESTA machines are in operation.

After the mammoth walk and you reach immigration, as you approach the immigration area you will see a load of machines in front of you, don't use these as those are for US passport holders and the lines are long for those.

Turn right into the main International immigration hall through the one-way doors as normal, but then immediately turn left missing the end of the manual processing lines and head straight towards the green LED lit area at the far end of the hall as that's where the 40-50 or so ESTA machines are located. They are in a separate little area to your left with agents floating around to offer assistance using the machines if required.

It's then a case of either exiting the immigration hall or joining one of the several very short 'you need to see an agent' line, if the ESTA machine spits out a ticket with a big cross on it. There's an agent as you leave the ESTA machine area directing you in either direction as they check your ticket.

If you do exit straight away with no cross on your ticket, do keep your ticket to hand as you then have to hand it to customs after baggage reclaim.

No idea about which belt BA use sorry, but the one VS often use at MIA is also right next to one of the customs / exit points.

As I am counting down to my trip to Miami, I would be very grateful ,Hazban, if you would post a report about your experience of arriving there ! Thank you. I think BA gates are in a different area to VS.

And of course I am looking forward to reading about your First Class experience.

Have a great flight and a sunny trip.

well, reading this thread has put me right off flying to miami.
Was looking to do a transatlantic cruise from US to Barcelona

Last time we flew into Miami was in May 2014. There were no ESTA machines for foreign visitors to use and we were dreading (and expecting) at least a 2 hr wait in immigration. Our flight was delayed about an hour and we landed around 6.00 pm. It was indeed a long walk to the immigration hall (about 15 mins using the travelators) but when we finally got there it was almost empty. We were through in about 15 mins and out of the airport within an hour of the plane landing! To say we were surprised was an understatement.

The departure lounge for Virgin flights is a really drab, dreary place and not one you would want to spend a lot of time in.

After a very comfortable flight with BA finally arrived on time, though there was a long delay in attaching the air bridges. Apparently they are very nervous about using machinery near a BA A380 following an incident a few weeks ago when they managed to cause some expensive damage to one!
Can't remember the gate number, judging from the walk to immigration it was somewhere in the Florida Keys!
Thanks to the info from Ryan and mitchja I was well briefed on finding and using the automated kiosks and didn't let the side down, though others seemed to be having great problems obviously not v-flyers.
Having got my printed out receipt (God do I really look like that) I made my way into the main hall to join the end of a huge line to hand it in to a human. Fortunately we moved reasonably quickly but it still took about 15 minutes, thought it might have been faster if I had an X on it as that line was much shorter.
Enjoyed the next hike to baggage claim For some reason all the luggage from several flights was arriving on the same belt and it was being stacked on the floor by airport staff. Can you imagine how many black suitcases there are an an A380.
Being priority mine had been buried order the pile but after some serious excavation it was retrieved and I made my way out into the warm evening air

Thank you for the update. I think the gates at LHR are a fair hike away too, aren't they !

I really look forward to hearing more detail about your flight.

Enjoy the sun and have a great stay.

[mitchja]

Glad to hear you made it through MIA

The whole process is very much improved now and at least they are trying. Just need a brand new terminal now and MIA will be a reasonable airport again.

On your return home, do remember to spend the least time possible at MIA before the flight home.

Thanks for the update Hazban, appreciated. We are going through Miami next month and am dreading it, but it sounds a wee bit better than it was in the past.

On our return we will be driving up from the Keys so plan to drop the car off at 7 pm for a 9.30 pm departure. The lounge sounds dire so I shall save myself for eating on the return flight.

Have a great vacation.