If I were to write a letter to an ombudsman from American Airlines or Miami International airport it might read something like this.

If I were to write a letter to an ombudsman from American Airlines or Miami International airport it might read something like this.

To whom it may concern,

I was recently travelling with my family including my wife, 2 and a half year old and 4 month old to Turcs and Caicos. Since there aren't direct flights we chose to go through Miami International airport. The trip to the island was fairly uneventful and surprisingly pleasant. Unfortunately the return trip was one that my family would prefer to never repeat again.

When we arrived at the airport at Provinciales my wife, carrying our baby in a sling was placed into the "high risk" search group. I don't know if anyone has ever tried to move a family of 4 with a toddler, an infant, a double stroller, laptop, and camera through the security checkpoints at airports but it is a complete nightmare taking about ten minutes with much frustration and confusion among children and parents often involving crying by more than one party. The walk through security was no exception this time.

Then while we were waiting at the terminal we were called to the front and told that our seat assignments had changed. We were given a better set of seats on the flight to Miami since they were in the bulkhead row. For this we were happy.

Upon arriving at Miami we had to split-up because our stroller was taking a very long time to get off of the plane and the attachment to the plane was too hot for the children. So I had a stroller and my wife had two children when we finally got out but because it is a long, multi-step journey from the plane to customs we ran into some problems. I couldn't find my wife coming out of the plane because one of the kids had needed to go to the bathroom. Because it was such a long wait to get the stroller I assumed she had gotten onto the train to customs.

So I took the train and then went down the escalator. I then waited for about 30 minutes. I wanted to return to look for her but there was neither a way to go back or a way to ask for help finding her from the prior areas like the train transfer or escalator. Since I had the transportation for her I learned that she had great difficulty getting both children to the customs area by herself. She finally appeared bedraggled with another passenger who had taken pity on her carrying our baby.

We got through customs fine but then arrived in the hall where baggage needs to be picked off of the baggage claim, walked through customs, and then transported to the area where it is then transferred into a cordoned off area. This place was a disaster with two kids and a double stroller. Since it had already been an ordeal they were starting to melt down as small kids tend to do. But we figured that if we had gotten through customs and our baggage then we should be all set to get some food and hop on our plane.

We then came to a very hard to navigate exit from the customs area. I am not sure if we walked the wrong way or not but we had to remove our kids from the double stroller to avoid the immense lines for the elevators by elderly and handicapped people. We were, with some trouble able to navigate the two changes in elevation on escalators with some great difficulty and then follow a path that directed us to our terminal only to find that we needed to go through a new security check that was backed-up with a long line.

The only thing worse than a security check with melting-down children is a long line with melting-down children. So at the end of the long line we reached the area where we prep all of our stuff and there were no buckets to put our things into and we were told the stroller wouldn't fit through. So I had to leave my wife with the two screaming kids after she hit me over the head with a bucket from another line to stroll the stroller over to the other side of the security area. Since we have to travel with a stack of tickets and passport documents I gave them to my wife and hoped for the best for getting through on the side where I was giving the security folks my stroller. But they wouldn't let me through without my ticket and my wife had gone through with the tickets already. Luckily when I returned to the side where we had originally tried to cross the security people recognized me and were able to figure out a way to get me through.

Following this security zone we then had to go both down an escalator and up an escalator to reach the terminal area where our plane was. The travelling in non-accessible areas was starting to become quite painful since every time we are able to place our kid or kids into the double stroller we need to take them out in order to go on an escalator. Given the long lines for the elevators it was unrealistic for us to wait.

But we did finally make it to our gate with about 30 minutes to spare for our flight and were able to find some food which we desparately needed since food isn't served anymore on lunch time flights and we hadn't expected an hour and half ordeal getting to our gate.

When we did get to the gate we needed to get our seating assignments. For some reason we didn't get seats on our flight despite having booked it 4 months in advance and having already been on a flight earlier in the day that we were transferring from. So we were assigned three seats in the last row in the back of the airplane - split into two seats and one.

After boarding the plane our 2 year old fell asleep on my lap. This was fine except that the plane didn't take off for an hour since they had been waiting on the tarmac for rerouting instructions. We were told that the plane would get cooler once it took off and the air conditioning system kicked-in.

After taking off, a few minutes later the air conditioning did kick in. Unfortunately it then get very hot after about 20 minutes. We assumed it was some fluke of the back of the plane but were again very uncomfortable. I'm not sure of the expected flight time of a plane from Miami to Boston but it felt like about 20 hours total. Actually the flight plan after the hour of extra time on the run way added another hour in air to avoid some storm. This is fine and expected BUT the plane itself was unbearably hot and miserable in our last row bathroom view seats.

About 2 hours before the plane landed we finally complained to the stewardess that the plane was too hot. She told us that the reason why it was hot in the back of the plane was because the people in the middle of the plane had complained that it was too cold. Since the thermal controls of our plane couldn't handle everyone being comfortable the middle people had been given their wish to the detriment of our comfort. When asked the stewardess did lower the temperature of the back of the plane which made it survivable for the last couple of hours on the plane.

By the time we landed we were sweaty, tired, frustrated, and miserable but very happy to be home.

I think there are a number of areas where American and Miami Intl. could improve.

1. Get rid of all the elevation changes in the customs / re-security check process. They are brutal.

2. When people with kids book travel months in advance. Give them seating arrangements and keep them.

3. Try to figure out a more streamlined approach to customs to avoid a re-checkin through general security a second time.

4. Either get different zones for air conditioning planes, ensure uniform air circulation for temperature, or monitor the temperature to make sure neither folks in the back or middle are dueling for hot or cold to make the other uncomfortable.

5. Do better to avoid situations where the planes board in hot tarmacs to then have passengers wait an hour or more in hot planes.

6. Understand the special needs of people travelling through security with young children and assign staff to help/support them similar to staff who support handicapped people. Possibly provide them priority when going through security checkpoints.