My wife and I just returned from a week at Sandals Royal Barbados. 10 days before our trip, she decided it would be a good idea to break her ankle. Fortunately, she is in a walking boot, and we were able to still go on the trip. However, walking through the airport would be impossible, so we arranged for wheelchair transport on all legs of the trip.

The outbound trips went well. Outbound from CVG to MIA and MIA to Barbados were easy. Upon arrival in Barbados we were able to skip a lot of the lines, which made things go very quickly. The problem arose on the return trip. Getting off the plane in Miami, there was no wheelchair waiting for us. We had to hold on the aircraft until an attendant came for us. When he did, he took us up to the concourse and had us wait while he took a golf cart full of other wheelchair bound people away. He returned a few minutes later, put us on the golf cart, and drove us to a sitting area in another part of the concourse where a bunch of other people were waiting. He told us to take my wife's boarding pass to the desk there and wait to be called. He then left without any type of explanation. We did as told, and the attendants at the desk told us to wait to be called. No other information was given to us about what was going on.

There was probably 40-50 people in the area. These were people in wheelchairs, on crutches, or with canes, and their traveling companions. Nobody seemed to know what was going on. Most of the people waiting were Spanish speaking, as were the attendants at the desk. I number of animated conversations were taking place at the desk, but since I don't speak Spanish, I was not privy to what was being said. Eventually, probably after about 30 minutes, my wife's name was called, and an attendant with wheelchair took us to Immigration, Customs, etc.

That waiting area was like some 3rd world refugee camp. Everyone was angry and impatient, including me. After going through the process, I now understand what they were doing, and why they were doing it. Unfortunately, they were definitely understaffed with wheelchair attendants, and they did not do themselves or us any favors with their lack of information.

The whole passport control/customs area was the most grabastic clusterfuck I've been through. Atlanta and Detroit have the process down pretty well, they have hordes of people passing through but are pretty organized. Miami not so much. Unfortunately, Delta doesn't fly to Barbados, so we had to fly American, which meant going through Miami.

I live in Fort Lauderdale, 1 hour from there. I'm sorry about your experience in Miami. Miami airport has always been a mess and I try to avoid flying out of there as much as possible. Fort Lauderdale airport is becoming that way. They keep expanding and expanding the airports, but there's no real land around them to do so, and it's not done in an intelligent manner and the layout is simply a clusterF. Unfortunately, most of your Carribbean, South and Central American flights, origionate out of Miami.

Also, tons of people in Miami that live there, don't speak English......this burns my britches.

Does Miami not have the normal Customs layout of the 10 or so booths with the moveable rope dividers?

I'm trying to figure out if you were sent to a secondary inspection area or if what you went through is standard for everyone when they get to Miami.

I'm curious as I may be flying to and from Israel from Miami next year.

Miami is a pain in the ass no matter how you slice it. I have to go through there a lot (Be there in a week, again), but hate it every time.

The best part of flying through Miami is about ten minutes after departure when it's less likely you'll go back.

quote:

Originally posted by Skull Leader:
Does Miami not have the normal Customs layout of the 10 or so booths with the moveable rope dividers?

I'm trying to figure out if you were sent to a secondary inspection area or if what you went through is standard for everyone when they get to Miami.

I'm curious as I may be flying to and from Israel from Miami next year.

They have video consoles that you do the preliminary stuff on.....a lot of them.....40 or so would be a guess. Then it prints out a sheet and you take that to a CBP booth/agent.....they have at least 20 of those, but probably more. The problem is, you get a lot of people flying in from Central and South America and that takes A LOT longer per person as they're trying to screen them to see if they're a drug mule etc. etc.

I think the OP's issue is they simply didn't have enough wheelchair people to move them around the airport, once they got off of the plane, and they didn't communicate well to the people like the OP that were waiting and just had them sitting in an area with no Info.

I've flown in / out / through MIA a number of times, but I avoid it like the plague these days.

About the only thing I appreciate with regards to MIA are the Cuban sandwiches. Found those in 2010 ish on the way home from the Bahamas.

Miami stands as the worse airport I've been in or through. I haven't flown down to that area in a while but will always pick Ft. Lauderdale over Miami if possible.

I grew up in Miami and live near Ft Lauderdale now. I avoid Miami like the plague. I hate that you have to drive through it to get to the keys, lol. The airport has always sucked.

Never enter the country through MIA without Global Entry. Just don’t.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
Never enter the country through MIA without Global Entry. Just don’t.
-Rob

We landed in O’Hare from Europe. Getting to customs we saw a huge room and filled with people. To the right were Global Entry terminals. Stop, scan, answer a couple of question, take printout and done. We walked through a gate, caught our luggage as it came up, then were called to use the Global Entry gate. It was amazingly easy.