Miami International is a major regional hub for flights going and coming from Central and South America and the Caribbean. As such, you would expect it to be properly equipped to handle a large volume of passengers in a relatively efficient manner. As you will see, however, expectations are best kept low.

It is logical for an airport to do upgrades over time to accommodate for increased demand in passenger movements and update aging infrastructure. The often derided LaGuardia airport has apparently redeemed itself post-updates and is perhaps even regarded as pleasant. Even Newark, a popular “Why Your Airport Sucks” subject, is finally improving its ancient passenger terminals. Improvements at the Miami airport appear to be more at home on an episode of Flip or Flop. “Let’s put this grey backsplash up here. None of this is up to code, but we’ll just put a nice coat of paint here and nobody will know the difference.” The only upgrades are purely aesthetic and the airport has done nothing to actually improve the passenger experience.

The layout is awful. Entry and exit is essentially at one point. Passengers going through regular security will find long lines and slow processing. Signage is poor. Getting between departures and arrivals is also only available at one point. Considering the airport’s own website says it takes 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other, a more efficient means of getting from point to point is sorely needed and the skytrain isn’t it as it requires multiple long escalators just to access it. Gates are only on one side of the concourse, increasing the distances between gates and decreasing efficiency. Because everyone comes through security on one side of the airport, everyone has to traverse the same areas and it ends up being a choke point. It gives the illusion that the airport is far more crowded than it actually is. While Miami barely makes the top 10 of busiest U.S. airports, it only has about half the passenger volume of a place like LAX or Denver, where one can at least feel like they have room to walk.

Next, while the variety of food options is appreciated, there is no place to sit and eat said food. As a result, even the “empty” gate areas are full of people trying to successfully eat their food without dumping mustard on themselves. The arrangement of the gates is just so horrendously laid out that the prospect of changing planes in Miami seems daunting. That’s not great if you fashion yourself a major hub. If you had to check your bag at any point on your journey, good luck getting it in a timely fashion. Wait times average upwards of 45 minutes, something I can confirm.

These are not purely my own opinions. Skytrax gives the Miami airport a generous 2/10 stars while various other surveys put it in the bottom five airports in the country. Worth noting is that Miami is actually ranked better than three other Florida airports (Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, and Orlando if you’re curious) thereby making Florida the worst state in the country for a positive airport experience. Florida seems to suffer many of the issues that plague travel through airports in the United Kingdom. It is as if the designers in this region have never traveled through an airport in their lives and thus don’t understand how airports are meant to function. Most reviews about the airport complain about a lack of cleanliness, complete lack of customer service, bad security wait times, horrendous customs processing over two hours, and slow baggage claim. When you fly, you want to get from one place and arrive in another. But when you’re in Miami, you can’t even get to the other side of the terminal without pulling a hamstring or getting unceremoniously run over by a cart. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if you need to use some sort of American gateway to the Caribbean or South America, it’s better to go to Atlanta or Houston. Your odds are better of arriving with your bags and your dignity.