Customs and Immigration time in Miami

[EL Pistoffo]

I got quite a laugh reading through this thread. Having lived in Miami for 40 years I can relate to it. Miami is a Banana Republic, plain and simple. Forget all the glitz and glamour you see on TV. The place is rat race in a semi-3rd world country. Only good thing is the food and hot women. Proceed with caution. :grinbandit:

 

[Damselfish]

I live in Curacao and have for years routinely flown from Curacao to the states. I've never had 2+ hours in MIA and I've never missed my connection. 9 times out of 10 my connection is in the 1:10-1:30 layover time frame. Been within ten minutes a few times but those were closer to one hour layovers.

There is one huge caveat to that though. I always take the early American flight out of Curacao. It stays overnight in Curacao so it never takes off late. If you are on the later flight, that may not be the case.

I don't think later flights leaving late is much of a problem, at least I've not had that happen. But possibly an early flight gets you into Miami at a "better" time, rather than when a whole mess of planes from every island have all arrived around the same time, packed full of vacationers, with lots of luggage? Just a theory. The trouble with an early flight is that it's fine if you live there, but as a vacationer I'd usually rather leave a later to have a nice breakfast and generally relax and whatever, rather than rushing to end my vacation any sooner than necessary. And also to not stop my diving earlier than necessary - with a later flight I'm probably diving the previous morning and maybe even early afternoon, but with an early flight I might not be diving the previous day.

 

[Hintermann]

I passed through Miami Airport last night and it took 1 hour 30 minutes from the moment the plane stopped (it was on time) to the time I was able to clear US Immigration, collect luggage, clear customs, re-check my luggage, go through security and reach the gate of my connecting flight with the same airline. As it happened, I had allowed for this and so I was OK but you have to factor in long and repeated queues. But one thing - the queues kept moving quickly.