TPA

Airport #95/100: Miami

Paul BogardLeave a comment
Photo of "Miami International Airport" sign on terminal building

Miami International Airport
Miami, Florida, United States
First visit: 18 October 2019
flighthistorian.com/airports/MIA

One of my earliest posts when I started this blog in 2013 discussed how I’d been to all but six of the FAA-designated large hubs in the US, and I was only missing six: IAH, MDW, SAN, TPA, FLL, and MIA. Over the years, I’d managed to visit the first five, and this week I finally picked up MIA as well, completing my collection of large US hub airports.

I’d originally scheduled a 2 hour and 45 minute layover to give myself time to explore the airport, but my incoming flight was delayed and I only ended up getting about two hours. However, it ended up being enough, because in my reading up about MIA pre-trip, I’d somehow managed to miss that the concourses weren’t all connected behind security. With my AA boarding passes, I’d only be able to see concourses D and E airside.

D was quite long – while I don’t believe it’s quite as long as the main terminal at DTW, it’s the only airport I can recall visiting a single concourse with four of its own train stations.

E was interesting with its bizarre pier and satellite structure, where instead of the satellite train connecting to the close end of the pier, it connected to the root of the pier, with the tracks running over the roof of the length of the pier.

Photo of MIA Concourse E, with the satellite on the right and the pier on the left.
Concourse E, with the satellite on the right and the pier on the left.

Since D and E didn’t take the whole layover time to explore, and since I had PreCheck to expedite security, I also went ahead and exited the secure area to visit the ticketing, baggage claim, and parking structure areas.

Photo of the MIA central terminal from a parking structure

All in all, it’s not an airport that I would go out of my way to visit again, but it was a pretty decent airport for a moderate layover.

2017 Year in Travel

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Flights

With 113 total flights, this was a record flying year for me – the first year I’ve ever exceeded 100 flights. My work flights alone this year exceeded my total flights last year.

2017-flights

Hotels

My hotel nights were pretty consistent with the prior three years; I ended the year with 109 total nights.

2017-hotels

New Airports

I only visited five new airports this year, which puts me at a total of 78 airports visited so far.

New Airports 2017

Jacksonville, NC (OAJ)
Destin/Fort Walton Beach (VPS)
Bakersfield (BFL)
Tampa (TPA)
Peoria (PIA)

Peoria wasn’t a planned visit – we ended up diverting there and deplaning due to weather in Chicago.

Elite Status

I maintained American Platinum and Hilton Diamond this year, and earned Silver status for both United and Marriott.

EOY Status

So, for the first time, I have legitimate Marriott status – my previous Marriott Gold was a reward for having Gold status on United.

Trivia