[Alexsmom]

I am looking at flights for our pick up trip, and there's a good deal on an American flight, but we'd have to connect in Miami. I've heard that Miami immigration is just crazy, so I would avoid it if the flight wasn't so cheap. The layover time is 2 hours. If anyone's connected through Miami, can you tell me what it was like and if 2 hours would be enough time to catch our connection?

Thanks so much!

[mac308]

The last time we did immigration through Miami was 4 years ago.... we will never do immmigration through Miami again! I'm sure others have had decent experiences and since ours was so long ago, maybe it's gotten better. Good luck.... hope you hear better news and you're able to get that cheaper flight

Megan

[mybabykaili]

We have been through Miami 2 times this year visiting our baby girl. I would rather swim than to bring her back through Miami! Immigrations was a nightmare and we are obviously US citizens. I cant imagine what it would be like to bring her through there for the first time.


We have also flown through Houston and Atlanta. They were supereasy. Atlanta told us to request special assistance when booked our flight and they would escort us to the front of the immigrations line with our daughter.

Congrats on bringing your baby home!

[devildogwife]

I have flown through Miami before returning from Nicaragua and it wasn't that bad. If the flight is cheap enough, I would do it. But Atlanta has been the best experience for me, followed by Houston. However, I think I would want more than 2 hours for any of the airports; I like to be extra careful with my time.

[kcbailey777]

I flew through Miami on the visit trip. It was aweful. I walked at least a mile to my gate only to be told they changed the gate to the other end of the airport. There was construction so it took forever. There is no amount of savings that would even tempt me to fly through Miami on the pickup trip. I would also allow 3 hours in between flights so you are not rushed. Sorry to be such a downer.

Lisa

[WaitingforJacob]

We used Fort Lauderdale for both visit and pick up...it was a breeze! I've heard lots of negative about Miami....

Good luck!
Kathy

[jandsmom]

We went through Miami 6 years ago to bring my son home. It was a nightmare we had a 2 hour layover. It was not enough time we missed our flight by 10 min. We sat in Miami's airport for 8.5 hours until the next flight out.


This time we paid more changed planed in Houstan much much much better.

[jeannecr]

We also recently connected through Miami. The flights were delayed both ways. Immigration wasn't bad for us, but it depends on how many planes come in at once. We had to walk a long, long way to our gate. We are going to avoid Miami on our pickup trip.

[Carina Gallagher]

We are living in Ireland and on our 1st and 2nd adoptions we went through immigration in Miami (Oct.'01 and Jul'03) I can honestly say it was by far the worst experience I have ever had (both times)

We will do anything to avoid going through Miami with our 3rd adoption which we hope will see us travelling very soon!!!!

2 hours would never be enough time forto catch a connecting flight, we had 4 hours to spare last time and we still nearly missed our flight!!! Too much red tape, queueing, requeing, walking forever from one part of the airport to the other!!!!!! I could go on and on!!!!!! Maybe others had a different experience but FWIW that unfortunately was ours!

[loricalla]

We flew through Miami in June coming home from our visit trip. We had a 3 hour layover, and we needed all of it. My husband has a green card, so that meant we got the longer line. We stood in line for 45 minutes, then had to recheck our luggage, and it was very far to our connecting flight.


We are hoping to get out of PGN any day now and I discovered there is a direct flight out of Dulles in Washington, DC. That is a 3 hour drive for us, but it's better than going through that mess in Miami.

I think it would be worth paying a little more to save yourself a big headache. I can't imagine how bad our trip through Miami might have been if we had a baby with us.

Lori Beneyton

[DeeVee]

As the other posters have sadi, avaoiod Miami if you can. Also 2 hours is not enough of a layover. We just came through Atlanta last week, which was pretty crowded, and we had a three hour layover, which was just enough time (we didn;t have to sprint anywhere and we had time to get a snack).

[Niclayson]

We must be the exception. We flew into Miami (we could drive home from there) and had NO problems. It was an early morning flight on American. It took exactly 50 minutes from getting off the plane, going through immigration, to climbing into our car and loading the baby in the car seat! Under an hour...from plane to ride home was pretty impressive to me!

Now Ft. Lauderdale in November after a visit trip was a 2 hour line wait! Go figure.

[krambk]

Okay I am considering a connection flight as well out of Miami. THis is my question, When do you go through Immigration/Customs, As you go out of the US?

It was my understanding that we only go through Customs/immigration as we get in to Guatemala and then on the way home back in the US

Is this wrong??

Our Flight would get into Miami around 1030am and then our connecting flight leaves at 12:00 which leaves us 1 1/2 hours to catch our connection flight. We are NOT checking baggage we are using carryons.

Then on the way back we have a 3 hour layover from Miami back home.

THis is a visit trip

Some one advise me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let me finish by saying we are getting our roundtrip tickets for $248 each vs about $700 each.

[Alexsmom]

Thanks for the responses, guys! Looks like we will pay the extra cost and steer clear of Miami. We're bringing our 2 boys also, so we definitely don't want to be walking all over the Miami airport!!!

Thanks!

[jenniferw223]

We live in Orlando and made the 4 hour drive to Miami both on visit trip and pick up. We had no problems what so ever. Now granted we did not have to rush for a connecting flight. We flew TACA so almost everyone on the plane was Guatemalan. So this meant they went to a different line then we did. We went to US side where there was pretty much noone in line both times. When we came home we had to wait in the immigration office area while they processed our paperwork. There was one family ahead of us and it took less then an hour. So if you can fly TACA airlines or any non American airline you may have a quicker process through immigration. We also flew on weekdays so that may have helped.