Musings from the Miami Airport

As a general rule, I hate the Miami airport, and as a general rule, I think each airline and government agency represented at MIA chooses their surliest, most disgruntled employees and sends them to MIA to make passengers' lives utterly and completely miserable.

Imagine my surprise when everything worked like clockwork and employees actually smiled upon landing in MIA after the overnight from Rio!  Granted I didn't have to claim any checked bags, but I made it from the airplane all the way through Immigration and Customs in 20 minutes flat. Truly a modern-life example that miracles still happen.

I had plenty of time to grab some Starbucks, read, and use my earring back to open the SIM card slot on my iPhone to change out SIM cards so I could use my phone here in the U.S.  Yet another example of a modern miracle.

All this to say that I was very relaxed and unsuspecting when I approached the gate agent about my boarding zone, which was not indicated on the boarding pass I got in Rio.

Cue the disgruntled worker.

Apparently the people who work the overnight shift at MIA are a happy bunch and the sour patch kids come in for the day shift.

The agent informed me that if I didn't have a zone listed, I was Zone 4, which means you board last.

Now I'm very well aware of Zone 4 because I'm a normal resident of that zone. But because I used approximately 6,429,327 of Jimmy's high-status miles for this ticket, I've had Priority boarding (and those bigger seats with more legroom) for the whole trip.  A girl can become used to a certain priority status.

I tried to explain to this agent all this, but he was so rude and dismissive. He actually walked away while I was speaking to him.

They're now calling for people in Zone 4 to gate-check their carry-ons for free because the flight is packed. As they say in Bogota, "Que Pena"; I have one small bag and it's going with me because of that agent.

Rekindling my distaste for MIA...