Miami airport lounge access question

[ian moore]

We are going on the Regal Princess in March in the Caribbean and,as usual,we are disembarking the ship early and will have a long time to spend in Miami airport before our British Airways flight home.

 

Can anyone recommend a good Executive lounge that we can pay to use?

 

There seems to be quite a choice in Miami airport - we understand that we cannot pay to utilise the BA lounge.

 

All help appreciated.

 

 

Ian Moore

[chamima]

We are going on the Regal Princess in March in the Caribbean and,as usual,we are disembarking the ship early and will have a long time to spend in Miami airport before our British Airways flight home.

 

Can anyone recommend a good Executive lounge that we can pay to use?

 

There seems to be quite a choice in Miami airport - we understand that we cannot pay to utilise the BA lounge.

 

All help appreciated.

 

 

Ian Moore

 

 

If you have a Platinum American Express card (the expensive one - not one associated with a hotel or store ) there is a WONDERFUL Platinum lounge there!

[VMax1700]

I have been in Club America as it is used by Virgin Atlantic. It is pretty poor. I certainly wouldn't pay to enter it. I believe you would need to use a lounge that is pre-security as you would not be able to check in early in the day.

 

We normally put our luggage into the Baggage Storage at the Central Terminal and take the shuttle bus to Dolphin Mall for shopping and food court.

[markeb]

I'm assuming you're flying BA without airline status and in economy?

 

Your best bet is probably a day pass at the American Admiral's Club, although it currently looks like only one of the two is offering day passes. They're going for $59/person/day, so not inexpensive.

 

As stated, there is a lounge available to American Express platinum cardholders.

 

None of them look particularly convenient to BA, I'm afraid, and no, BA doesn't sell admission or honor Admiral's Club memberships.

[Gerrym]

I have been in Club America as it is used by Virgin Atlantic. It is pretty poor. I certainly wouldn't pay to enter it. I believe you would need to use a lounge that is pre-security as you would not be able to check in early in the day.

 

We normally put our luggage into the Baggage Storage at the Central Terminal and take the shuttle bus to Dolphin Mall for shopping and food court.

 

:(

 

We are flying Upper to / from LHR / Miami for our cruise next month. I loooove the LHR clubhouse but not sure I am looking forward to the Miami shared facility!

[Corfe Mixture]

We are going on the Regal Princess in March in the Caribbean and,as usual,we are disembarking the ship early and will have a long time to spend in Miami airport before our British Airways flight home.

 

Can anyone recommend a good Executive lounge that we can pay to use?

 

There seems to be quite a choice in Miami airport - we understand that we cannot pay to utilise the BA lounge.

 

All help appreciated.

 

 

Ian Moore

 

I hope you don't feel this reply is off topic, but why don't you book a ship's disembarkation tour that drops you at the airport?

 

You are correct that you can't pay to get into the BA lounge, but remember, you are looking at something like 8-9 hours between leaving the ship and departure from MIA and most paid lounges restrict the stay to three hours (though how strictly they enforce that might be questionable).

 

More importantly, when we last passed through in January 2016, they did not open check-in / bag drop for BA flights at MIA until just a few hours before the flight and, although we did not arrive at MIA until around 14.00 for a 17.45 flight and were travelling BA business class, we still had to wait until three hours before departure for the check-in desk to open.

 

So, to come to my suggestion.

 

What we did last year was to book a cruise line (Princess) tour of the harbour with a drop-off at MIA at 14.00. It really was not that much more expensive than a simple transfer to MIA and if, as would appear, you place a value on convenience is probably better value, and not much more expensive than paying for a transfer and lounge access.

 

The way it worked was that we disembarked and having collected our luggage took it to the tour bus where it was placed in the luggage bay which was locked. The tour then took us around Fort Lauderdale followed by a narrated boat trip around the harbour, passing all the magnificent waterside homes.

 

We then boarded the coach which dropped us off at the airport at 14.00 when, as I said we still had to wait around 30minutes before check-in opened.

 

Once through immigration we were able to go to the BA lounge but I would estimate that we had no more than two hours in the lounge before we left to board the aircraft and, to be honest, it probably would not have been that much of a problem had we not had lounge access as there is a large mall area to pass an hour or so after immigration in MIA.

 

Certainly I would have been very annoyed if I had arrived at say 10am having paid for lounge access only to discover that I had to wait for 3 hours before I could check-in and go through to the lounge.

 

As an aside, for future reference, take note that BA are introducing a direct service to FLL from LGW.

 

EDIT: Just checked. We paid Princess $59.95 each ($119.90 in total) last January for the above tour. Not sure how much a simple transfer to MIA would have cost, but I seem to recall a figure of $24.95 per person and certainly remember thinking that the difference made it a 'no brainer'

Edited January 8, 2017 by Corfe Mixture

[fireofficer5]

The Miami International Airport Hotel offers day rooms.

Its located at Central Terminal, Departure level.

 

 

1-800-327-1276

Edited January 8, 2017 by fireofficer5