Miami International - worst airport?

terf

I have no problems using self check in machines - in fact I use them if there is the option - but generally they are there to make your life easier not harder. Personally I have no problems with LHR at all - I know I'm one of the few. Not compared to MIA. But that shows everyone has different experiences and opinions - this was just mine. If you love flying AA thats your perogative and good luck to you.

GlennTheBaker

bringmeshoes wrote: »

i think zante airport is pretty horiffic. (although i love zante itself) its about the size of a shoe box and they made us queue outside in the blazing heat for nearly an hour as there was 3 flights back to the uk tiwhin 20 mins of each other so there was not enough room for everyone to check in.

As soon as I saw the thread title I thought 'It can't be as bad as Zante!' An absolute hole of an airport.

jeanpiehl

Miami International is far from the worst airport. I think Ninoy Aquino in Manila Philippines is one of the worst, top ten at least. The worst part about that is that according to my Philippino friend, they're sitting on a much nicer airport, but it's just gathering dust because they're in court with the german company that built it because the company is suing to get back the money they paid out in bribes! Hilarious but sad.

duchy

Comparing Zante airport with Miami is a bit like comparing Crinkly Bottom railway station with London Euston. Apples with oranges
Funnily enough when flying to the west coast of the US I prefer NOT to fly direct as I believe it's healthier to change planes and get to walk around the connecting airport and clear customs and immigration rather than sit for another 4 hours-plus when you get to your destination you grab your bags and are gone rather than having the frustration of knowing you are where you want to be-but still stuck in the airport for a while. In November I flew direct from LA to Heathrow and had circulation problems the next day-something I never get usually after flying.

Voyager2002

jeanpiehl wrote: »

Miami International is far from the worst airport. I think Ninoy Aquino in Manila Philippines is one of the worst, top ten at least. The worst part about that is that according to my Philippino friend, they're sitting on a much nicer airport, but it's just gathering dust because they're in court with the german company that built it because the company is suing to get back the money they paid out in bribes! Hilarious but sad.

Until you have used Hyderabad airport you have no conception of what a really bad airport is like.

ScienceGirl87

Miami Airport completely messed us about at Christmas too.
We also flew with American Airlines.

When we got to check in, we didn't have a clue where to chek in and kept being directed to different desks, eventually, we tried the self check in, and when we tried to this, we found out our flights has been canceled and we were flying the day after!

We queued up and spoke to a rude lady who said, we would have to taxi from Miami to Chicago!!! As NO flights would be going to Chicago.

After about 2 hours of trying to sort stuff, she said 3 of us could fly to Chicago, but the 2 others might not get on.

When we got to the gate, we saw there were 5 flights going to Chicago and the only one that was canceled was the one we were on. The one 10 Minutes later was still going. I don't know why we just didn't get moved on to that flight as when we got on it, it was virtually empty!! Luckily we made it onto our connecting flight back to Manchester. But, it was a very irritating day.

Voyager2002

ScienceGirl87 wrote: »

Miami Airport completely messed us about at Christmas too.
We also flew with American Airlines.

When we got to check in, we didn't have a clue where to chek in and kept being directed to different desks, eventually, we tried the self check in, and when we tried to this, we found out our flights has been canceled and we were flying the day after!

We queued up and spoke to a rude lady who said, we would have to taxi from Miami to Chicago!!! As NO flights would be going to Chicago.

That would have been a candidate for the Guiness book of records: quite possibly the longest taxi ride in human history! I hope the airline would have paid for it.

duchy

LOL are you sure she didn't say the plane to Chicago was taxi-ing ?
I quite like it when planes are over-booked-a payment for a bump often pays for my next trip. I volunteered to fly 2 hours later last December from New York to London (11pm instead of 9pm) and got £200 -which was rather nice as the entire return flight had only cost £250.

DKLS

I hate flying into Chicago, where invariably, I land at say gate 2, and my connecting flight is on Gate 30, I usually end up pegging it across the aiport at breakneck speed to catch my flight. Then again, everytime I have a connecting flight, the departure gate is always miles away from the landing gate.
And I do try to not get stressed as I find customs officials usually have had a sense of humour by pass, especially the staff at Boston Logan, 3 weeks after 9-11. Shame they wernt so officious 3 weeks earlier.

exel1966

TBH most US immigration officials have had a sense of humour bypass.

It got to the point last year that the US Govt designed and distributed a leaflet to ALL US customs and immigration departments reminding them of the need to be friendlier, more approachable and more accomodating to foreign nationals visiting the US, as the perception was that they were very unfriendly and unwelcoming.

They're not the only ones guilty of that though. Maybe it comes with the uniform !