OK...I
think United has curbside checkin, but I don't know the extent of that. I fly American, and they not only have curbside checkin, but the skycaps can also print your boarding passes right at the curb.
Wheelchair arrangements
must be made through the airline, and they recommend making those arrangements in advance. You can do it at the ticket counter, but of course that will mean a delay -- MUCH better to do it ahead of time. We have used this service for Grandma, and they are great...and free (although we tip).
MIA has a page on their site called MIAir for special needs passengers. You have to register for it, so I haven't tried it, but it apparently offers a practice walk-through of your trip to help orient you to the passenger experience. Here's a link:
http://www.miami-airport.com/miaair.asp The Miami-airport.com url is the official MIA website, and they also have a downloadable app that may be useful.
IF you find that United has good curbside checkin, I would drop your family and luggage there.
As you enter MIA on the main roadway, stay to the right. Parking will be to the left, then Arrivals on the lower level in the middle, and
Departures will be upper level
to the right. Immediately when you get to the top level, move to the
left. American Airlines has Doors 1-8 and everybody goes to Door 1, which creates a traffic backup. Stay
left to miss all that craziness. Work your way around to United and drop your family off at United.
Then...
- Exit the airport, staying kind of in the middle of the exit roadway (6-8 lanes) and take EXIT #3. Fourth lane from the left is perfect (I think)
- Once the ramp curves to the left on Exit 3, just stay in the right lane and bear right, then stay right and continue turning right. You will circle around about half of the rental car center, and enter it. Then just look for your rental car agency signs.
- Return the rental car and then take the MIA Mover (my original reference to Skytrain was wrong -- the correct name for this train is MIA Mover) back to the terminal. The MIA Mover brings you into the third level of a parking garage and there are moving walkways from there to the terminal gate areas.
United is located in the South Terminal, but I'm not sure exactly where. If I go to the airport in the next few days, I'll see what concourse, door numbers, etc and stop and check out the curbside checkin capabilities.
