Adventures in International Travel
The blog was on vacation for a few days in Cayman last week. My wife and I had a fantastic trip with a lot of Caribbean rum drinks and crystal clear waters. The trip was great right up to the point where we had to go through US Customs in Miami. We were catching a flight from Miami to NY, and after our flight landed, we were stuck on the tarmac for 25 minutes waiting for American to clear a few flights out of its gate area. Here was the overall path we had to endure to get home:
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Go through Cayman airport security check.
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Go through Cayman immigration/customs.
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Get off Cayman to Miami flight.
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Go through US Immigration.
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Get baggage that was already checked through to NY.
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Go through US Customs.
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Recheck baggage to NY.
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Go through Miami airport security check (2nd time).
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Sprint to gate with wife-make flight with 10 minutes to spare.
I should also mention that during step 8, when I asked the security person if we could move to the front of the line as our flight was departing in 25 minutes, I was told that it had to be leaving in 15 minutes or less for them to expedite us. So why did I need to leave the secure area in Miami and go through screening a 2nd time? And why can't Customs recheck my bags immediately after passing through there? My wife and I are seriously thinking about not going to any more international destinations unless there are direct flights from NY just because getting though Miami was such a headache. It's a good thing Cayman is awesome, or our trip home would have erased the restful value of the whole vacation. I should also point out the only reason we needed to check bags at all is because my spray deodorant might have been liquid explosives according to the Transportation Insecurity Agency.