This week has been one with a wide diversity of airport stories. We received news about a gold heist, a landing gone “belly up”, a flight to the wrong airport, an introduction of a new airport shopping experience, a baggage handler strike and a supercar used for taxing planes.
Tag Archives: MIA
This week: Atlanta best, Miami fastest and Santiago stranded
Wow, this week saw the launch of the world’s very first airport only trip. Sounds like we had our fingers in that one? You bet! In fact we’ve worked together with OutTrippin’s new service and tailored a fantastic airport adventure to explore 4 of the worlds best airports in 48 hours! Read more about how you can book this fabulous airport adventure here.
Continue reading This week: Atlanta best, Miami fastest and Santiago stranded
This week: boy finds airport blueprints, Miami stars in TV show & more
Believe it or not, but we don’t have any strikes to report this week. Instead we found quite a few other (more?) interesting airport news stories from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and India.
Continue reading This week: boy finds airport blueprints, Miami stars in TV show & more
This week: a lost appeal, out-smarted security and a roaming bull
It’s another week with yet more exciting new airport news stories from around the globe. And it’s been quite an interesting week, so today we have a lost appeal, a boy that out-smarted all security checks, a study into spreading diseases and a roaming bull.
Continue reading This week: a lost appeal, out-smarted security and a roaming bull
This week’s airport events: Bears, Bites and an Orchestra
This week three US airports caught our attention: First on Tuesday there was San Francisco’s International Airport (IATA: SFO; LD reviewed) which made headlines with the arrival of the first scheduled Airbus A380 flight. The Lufthansa plane with flight number 454 landed at the Northern Californian airport on Tuesday morning for the first time and was welcomed by a fire truck and many eager plane spotters as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Continue reading This week’s airport events: Bears, Bites and an Orchestra
This week’s airport events: Herbs on planes and more
It was April fools day on Friday and Virgin Atlantic released a funny press release for the occasion: they announced that fresh herbs and vegetables will be grown on board Virgin Atlantic flights for Upper Class passengers from April 1st 2011. They really built up a proper story by specifying that in Upper Class, fresh herbs will be used to complement drinks and cocktails from the bar area including thyme for Bloody Mary’s and fresh mint for Mojitos, Pimms and tea. The vegetable offering will complement the in-flight meal with availability of vegetable depending on your destination. Carrots, baby new potatoes and spinach will be available on flights returning to the UK. Miniature pumpkins and sweet potatoes will be grown on transatlantic flights to the USA, while Tokyo routes will have the choice of okura (okra) or shiitake mushrooms. Virgin Atlantic even supplied pictures of the “new service”, see one above.
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This week’s airport events: sleep in Washington, fire in Miami
It’s been a massive week for Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA) after a fire broke out on Wednesday night and turning into an enormous blaze near six fuel tanks on the southeast side of the airport. It subsequently destroyed the airport’s hydrant fuel pump system forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The Miami Herald wrote that “some semblance of normalcy could return by early next week after temporary pumps are installed and the backlog of canceled flights clears out.”
Continue reading This week’s airport events: sleep in Washington, fire in Miami
Airport food: 3 continents, 3 airports, 3 great choices
You know the feeling, it’s evening, you rushed to the airport after a long day at work and haven’t had time to eat. You then find out your plane is delayed, so that you won’t get your free business economy class dinner anytime soon. What do you do? Well, there is always the crappy sandwich shop close to the gate, right? Wrong!
Luckily today many airports realised people actually value quality food and offer descent alternatives to the ubiquitous fast food chains. Following are three options from three different airports around the globe that cater for the foodie in you:
London Heathrow – Terminal 5: Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food
The unsurprising favourite is “Plane Food“, a fine dining outlet by London’s only 3-Star-Michelin chef, Gordon Ramsay. Lulu from Planet Eye recently wrote
…this is probably the only airport restaurant with which I’ve actually made a reservation. Once you tuck into the foie gras and chicken liver parfait, followed by the Casterbridge rib eye steak, it’s really hard to be satisfied by the chicken or the beef options offered by your flight attendant.
I’ve always been a fan of Gordon’s food and this has to be a must-go for when you have some time on your side (and made a reservation…). In addition Plane Food now also offers a few take-away picnics (£14.95 for the lunch box). Enjoy!
Sydney International Terminal: Wagamama
It has sadly been a while since I have personally been at Sydney airport but one of the safe and tasteful choices is Hong Kong born Alan Yau‘s Australian subsidiary of Wagamama in the international terminal. You will be sitting on shared tables and have the choice of a variety of tasty Asian inspired dishes. Having tasted the Australian, the Dutch and the English Wagamama I must say I found the Aussie version the best – definitely worth a taste when you are in this magnificent city.
Miami International: Chili’s
Well, I’m going to follow a bit of a stereotype here by mentioning a chain restaurant as my choice for the USA’s most Latin airport. Sometimes you just want that uncomplicated, yet tasteful American comfort food. Go to Chili’s which you find in the G area and taste one of their wonderful Baby Back Ribs. They really are delicious!
[Picture from Flickr]
Miami Airport – Gateway to South America
When you first arrive at Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA) you wouldn’t necessarily think you entered American soil as airport staff mostly speak Spanish and the general crowd looks different from what you would consider “typical” Americans. Of course this is no coincidence since Miami has long been a gateway to South America for the West and a first port of call for South and Central Americans visiting North America. Further more it is no surprise that throughout Miami and its airport you can easily get by without speaking English at all.
America’s third largest airport in terms of International passengers does feel fairly big with its nine different terminals or concourses as they are called here. These alphabetically named areas, A to J, are physically connected, however, once you go through security you can mostly not move between them. My Avianca flight to Bogotá (see related post about Bogotá airport) departed from the J concourse. This is Miami airport’s newest terminal which opened on August 29, 2007 under Miami International Airport’s South Terminal Renovation Project.
Check out these things to do when your flight departs from the H or J concourse (these two are connected):
- Get yourself (or treat your girlfriend) a 10 minute manicure for $15 between the H and J concourse
- Get another one of these delicious Coronas at “Corona Express” next to gate J4
- Change into something warmer at the fairly spacious toilets as the air conditioning is freezing throughout the terminal
- Recharge your iPhone at one of the many power stations
- Read the poetry written on the floor all along the J gates and accidentally pump into that beautiful, Colombian lady
| Airport Name | Miami International Airport – Concourse J |
| Website | http://www.miami-airport.com |
| IATA Code | MIA |
| Design |  |
| Shopping | |
| Toilets | |
| Overall | |
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$99.00 (£62.30) |
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$38.00 (£23.90) |