V-Flyer

I've got to pick up a 1745 flight after arriving on Virgin into Miami. What does everyone think of my chances of making it? Should i just take a £60 hit and rebook on a later (2000) flight?

45 minutes to get through US immigration, customs & re-check your bags?

I'd say that MIGHT just be pushing it! (Even assuming no delays...) [:0][ii]

Definitely rebook!

100% rebook[y]

US Immigration is notoriously slow, I have been waiting nearly 90 minutes to get through Immigration at MIA before.[n]

Facilities are really good in Miami so the wait won't be too bad.[y]

Originally posted by agiles
I've got to pick up a 1745 flight after arriving on Virgin into Miami. What does everyone think of my chances of making it? Should i just take a £60 hit and rebook on a later (2000) flight?

Originally posted by goanmad

Facilities are really good in Miami so the wait won't be too bad.[y]

Really - like what?

And in answer to the OP - rebook, rebook, rebook!! MIA does have notoriously slow immigration - if you do a search on here you will find alsorts of tales of woe - - including the fact that it is used as a training ground for new recruits - which really speeds the process up!![V]

In addition - if the VS 005 is running late it will just bother you more during the flight!!

wise words all, i was 99.9% certain i was being stupid. we booked last night!

Originally posted by agiles
wise words all, i was 99.9% certain i was being stupid.

Not at all - that's what this site is here for - if it saves you time, money or makes your travel with VS easier then the site succeeds. [y]

...um, at the risk of being stupid, would it not depend if its the winter or summer schedule? We land at 1410 on our April flight and have booked an internal over to TPA at 1740. I was figuring that 3.5 hours would be safe - of course I stand to be corrected by those with experience in these matters!

Cheers,

Neil

Absolutely nibbs.

The assumption is that this is the 17:00 arrival (which seems to have been backed up by the OP in their implied agreement with that assumption). Obviously if it were 3.5 hours, this would be a different conversation/reaction.

Cheers preiffer.

Having already changed my internal once, paranoia is begining to set in! The next flight with AA I could move to is 2240 - the thought of 10 hours at MIA is enough to make me hire a car and drive it!

Originally posted by agiles
wise words all, i was 99.9% certain i was being stupid. we booked last night!

Well done. Immigration in MIA, as readers of this site will know, is IMO the worst in America. It onces took me 2 1/4 hrs to get through. There's no organisation, the place is jammed, there's no help for the many foreign flights, the staff are rude and miserable ... need I go on ...

I flew into MIA in Nov 2001 and immigration was painfully slow then - and this was before the USA introduced the fingerprinting & photographing of foreign visitors, which will have slowed things down even more. (They were not exactly processing people fast back in 2001).

I remember the sheer number of people in the immigration queues complaining that they were missing connecting flights. Thankfully, my connection time to MCO was a long one, so we were OK.

Suffice it to say that I am in no hurry to fly into MIA again.

MIA is one of the main training airports for new immigration/customs/TSA agents, meaning that the poor pax who fly into MIA get stuck with agents just learning the ropes, hence I try very hard to fly into FFL if I can.