Rapid Travel Chai

Miami Airport’s H and J terminals were deserted last night at 10:30 pm, the last Delta flight arriving in H and The Rapid Traveler headed for J. Miami is one of the furstrating airports where most terminals are separate, requiring transfer passengers to exit and reenter through security when transferring among most of the terminals. He soon saw a passenger from a delayed American flight running from Terminal D all the way to Terminal J to make OneWorld partner Lan’s flight to Santiago. Too late and he was told to schlep back to D and sort it out with American. Not a happy man.

The Rapid Traveler lucked out in that H and J are connected, so Delta to Lan was a breeze, but there was no transfer counter and the Lan website did not let him get his boarding pass online. Exiting and then dealing with Miami’s infamous, inflexible security line guards was not a pleasant proposition. They always bark “Two pieces,” even someone toting three strawberries would probably fall afoul of them.

Photo by miamism

It was still several hours until his flight so that gate would not be staffed, but he instead went to the gate for the Santiago flight. The staff were accommodating and out popped his boarding pass. He was in the Club America lounge in minutes, enjoying a hot shower. The club is excellent and much better than the dowdy Club America in Terminal F, though it was absolutely frigid and he and everyone else bundled up.

The best part was they stayed open well past the 1 am closing time since the flight was not until 2:40. Trying getting a US airline-run lounge to do that, even in major delays.

So, when needing an impromptu transfer counter, give a try at one of your airline’s gates.