I have used Miami International Airport (MIA) four times. It was never a pleasant experience. Each time it has been worse than the time before. Yesterday was a complete disaster, that wound up with me suspending my religious beliefs.

The first time I changed planes at MIA I was on my way from my home in California to the Dominican Republic. At first the experience was rather typical. I arrived on time and found the gate for Santo Domingo without too much trouble. My procedure when transferring flights at an airport is to find the gate for my onward flight, then find something to eat close by, if there is time.

There was nothing decent to eat in the terminal! The only food offerings were a couple of national fast-food chains. I wound up eating some pizza, sitting at the gate. I do prefer a proper sit-down meal while I am waiting for my flight. But there was none to be had!

On my return from Santo Domingo, I had to change planes at MIA again. I was very surprised to discover that the passport check point still uses “Super Market” queuing (each booth has a separate queue). Virtually every other airport in the world uses “Bank Teller” queuing (one big queue with the person at the head going to the next available booth).

I did notice that the queues were shortest on the extreme right side and was able to get through in good time. The people who had opted for the first queue they encountered took several times longer to get through than I did.

My next challenge came when I left the international arrivals area and had to find my way to the connecting flight. There are signs directing patrons to ‘Exit’ and ‘Ground Transportation’. There is no apparent signage for ‘Connecting Flights’. There was a fast-food place off to the right. I asked the worker there where the connecting flights were and she directed me to the escalators a bit further down.

Basically you find your way to the connecting flights by going to right, because the only signage directs you to the left to exit, and you know you do not want to exit. (On a later visit to MIA I did find the sign for connecting flights. There is ONE; you have to turn 120 degrees to the right as soon as you leave international arrivals to see it!)

I had a very tight connection and not time to eat, so the lack of good food choices did not bug me much then.

The next time I went to Santo Domingo I had a couple of hours lay-over. However, the terminal I had to wait in had no hot food at all! There was not even fast food. The only food options were pre-wrapped sandwiches (which I refuse to eat since that horrible incident at Frankfurt airport), pastries, and chips. It was a very new terminal and the AA agent told me that they expected to have better food choices in the near future.

The worst experience was the one I had yesterday. I took an early flight from Santo Domingo. I was planning to eat some breakfast at Santo Domingo airport, but nothing was open yet. I landed at Miami Airport in a bad mood because I was hungry and I knew that I would not be able to get anything decent to eat there. The passport check point was a total mess. The plan to move over to the right to get in a short queue was thwarted by the fact that there were only three booths in the middle open.

I got into the shortest of the three lines. There were only about 6 people ahead of me, so I was hopeful that I would be able to get through with enough time to eat something, even if it were fast-food.

The passport officer at my booth was the slowest in the world! He was taking 15 minutes per person. Then they let somebody cut to the front of the line and had ‘Mr. Slow’ process him. After standing in line for 30 minutes I had only advanced one spot. Given the rate this guy was going it would be another hour and a half before I got through.

The other queues had grown extremely long, but I started doing the calculation as to whether it would be better to get into a longer queue that was moving rather then the one I was in that was not moving.

At this point I forgot that I am trying to practice Buddhist calm acceptance and lost my patience. I verbally expressed my displeasure with the situation. This prompted a police officer to come over and check my out. Luckily he decided I was harmless and let me alone.

At that point they opened up another booth. I sprinted ahead of a bunch of people in wheel chairs and slapped my passport and customs declaration form down in front of a passport officer who had just entered the booth. She processed me in less than a minute and I was out of there.

I went down to baggage claim, where my suitcase was already waiting, and walked out. I then had a disgusting breakfast at a fast food place.

I felt very bad about letting the place get to me like that. Then I started to feel bad about feeling bad about myself. I finally broke the cycle of feeling bad by just deciding to not be a Buddhist for a day. That worked!

Three of the four biggest problems with Miami airport could be solved immediately, for very little expenditure:

1. Signage on at the exit from international arrivals.
2. Bank Teller queuing at the passport check point.
3. Better scheduling of passport officers.

The other big problem would take more time to solve, but could be paid for by the food vendors: Provide proper, sit-down hot food restaurants.

My opinion was based on a summer flight from hell down to south america,and so I had to go thru customs there,overall I've been to worse  airports,and were more chaotic..I think If you are flying internationally,and if you can help it, go through other airports,it took hours to get through custums!

The first time I was in Miami Airport was in 1971, and I was flying down to the Islands. That was the week that airports, at least in that part of the country, started checking you for guns!

I had to go through a patdown before boarding the airplane. The procedure was so new that metal detectors weren't in use, yet. In those days mopes were hijacking airplanes to go to Cuba!

Wow, probably one of the more interesting airports in the world. Not many people speak English. However, beware of the walk from some international flights to customs. IT IS LONG! In eight years, this has not changed. Trust me, it's like a mile or two!!!!! Oh yeah, when you're in lines, WATCH OUT AND GUARD YOUR PLACE! The Latin Americans who pass through here have no decency and will cut in, in droves whenver they feel like it. A lot of them have NO MANNERS! You can't help but feel sad upon seeing the countless Latin American travellers, many presumably from poor nations, dressed up to the nines in garish, pricey designer clothes along with expensive bags. A lot of them are unbearable elitists too. Miami is a nice airport, as long as you can tolerate the classless wealthy Latin American tourists. No wonder so many of their poor flee to America in large numbers.

Interesting culturally - nice Latin flavor. Horrible smells. Terrible crowds. Bad signs. Not good traffic flow. Generally a disaster. But if you're on your way to a ship, so what....you're going on a cruise ! Otherwise, skip it.

Everything that magellan says about this airport is what I would say about it including that it is my least favorite place. The airport itself is relatively easy to get around, but in some cases it can take an eternity to go fom one flight from one terminal to another. Nevertheless, it has somewhat good archetecture and most of the flights are on time.

Yes, it's totally chaotic with people running around speaking every language under the sun, but I kind of get a kick out of this airport. It's modern and relatively clean, and so powerfully air conditioned that you will think that you are in Alaska and not Miami. It seems to be reasonably well laid out with no Dallas-esque hikes to catch your flight. My least favorite spot on the planet is also at this airport...once you walk out of the airport from baggage claim, you will find yourself under this overpass in a steaming, polluted little stretch that will make your head spin. After the air conditioning of the airport, the heat is intense, and the fumes from all of the cars and buses will make you sick to your stomach. My advice to you is to wait for your ride inside if at all possible...