I learned that even if my flight is on time, my luggage could make me miss my connection.

Our luggage arrived to Barbados, but missed our connection from Miami to LA

Alesandra Dubin

Because our Caribbean island destination was off the beaten trail, our return trip went like this: a small propeller plane from St. Vincent and the Grenadines to an American Airlines connection in Barbados, through Miami, and then back home to Los Angeles.

When we got to Miami, about eight hours into our journey, we were already sweaty and exhausted but had to collect our checked luggage for customs, only to recheck it immediately for our final flight to Los Angeles.

This is standard procedure when traveling on a multi-leg international flight and it was not just a logistical inconvenience, but it also nearly caused us to miss our connection home. 

That’s because even though the flight from Barbados to Miami was approximately on time, our luggage took well over an hour to make its way out to the carousel.

While I’d considered the possibility of a late flight causing a missed connection, it hadn’t even occurred to me that luggage alone could do it. 

Our layover in Miami was about 2.5 hours long, and it ended up being long enough to clear this hurdle. But I definitely wouldn’t allow for anything shorter than that when traveling back to the US with a layover from an international destination.

Going forward, I will remember that a longer layover buffer is useful when checking and rechecking luggage.