On our way back from the Florida Keys, we flew home from Miami. We arrived at the airport around 6:30pm after driving through a pretty bad thunderstorm and returned our rental car. Then we made the trek from the Multimodal Center (where all major car rental agencies are located) on the MIA Mover train. Then we walked all the way to Terminal D PreCheck. We got the rest of our steps in for the day that’s for sure.

Apparently the airport had been closed for about two hours while the storm went through. Although flights were beginning to take off and land, there were major delays cascading through the airport.

We arrived at the American Express Centurion Lounge elevators around 7pm to find…a line. There were a couple of friendly Amex reps taking names and phone numbers for the waitlist. We were told it would be about 45 minutes until we could enter the lounge, but I was skeptical given the number of delayed flights. Our flight had already been delayed about an hour so we had time to wait. I certainly was not in the mood to walk all the way to the Priority Pass Turkish Airlines lounge in Terminal E to find it was likely full anyway.

We found a couple of seats near the elevators and just bided our time. I checked back with the very patient reps a couple of times and they assured me that we were on the list. Finally, about 90 minutes after we checked in, I got a text alert that we were granted entrance to the lounge. We took the elevators up and found a table for two near the lounge and buffet.

We were able to charge our devices and get some food and drinks. Although the lounge closes at 10pm, the staff stops replenishing the buffet at 9pm and the bar closes at 9:30pm. We had time to get some dinner and a cocktail. I tried a special cocktail with whiskey and rum but it was too strong so I just switched to an old-fashioned. The buffet was fairly standard Centurion fare with soup, BBQ chicken thighs, a couple of vegetable dishes, potato wedges and a salad bar. There were some cookies for dessert.

We stayed in the lounge until about 9:50pm when I suggested we head down before everybody tried to use the elevators at the 10pm closing. I’ve been to this lounge a few times before, and despite it being recently expanded, it always seems packed and too small for the airport, a major American Airlines hub.

Despite the wait, the food and drinks were good and the lounge thinned out a bit after we arrived so it wasn’t the usual madhouse. I’m not complaining (much) as it’s nice to have a lounge option on the rare occasion when we’re flying a domestic airline other than Delta.

If you enjoyed this post (or have questions), let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.