To kick off my Le Premier in the new La Premiere adventure, I flew Avianca’s A320 business class from Miami to Bogota. Prior to my flight, I had the chance to check out the new Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami (MIA), which opened in March 2025. This is an unusual arrangement, since Avianca and TAP Air Portugal haven’t otherwise partnered on a lounge, though they do both belong to the Star Alliance.
The Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami Lounge is a decent facility. It’s modern and has a respectable selection of food and drinks. Mainly I’d say it’s just fantastic to have more lounge capacity in Concourse H & J, given the severe lounge shortage in this part of the terminal.
Check out my reviews of the other lounges in the terminal, including the Delta Sky Club®, the LATAM Lounge, and the Turkish Airlines Lounge.
In this post:
Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami location
The Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami is located in Concourse J, opposite of gate J4. Once you clear security, just go in the direction of Concourse J, and then you’ll see the entrance to the lounge a short distance later, on the right.
The lounge is located a level above the concourse, so you can either reach it via escalators or elevators.
Note that the Avianca-TAP Lounge shares an entrance with the LATAM Lounge. So when you enter the door, you’ll want to turn left, and then you’ll see the reception desk for the Avianca-TAP Lounge there.
Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami hours
The Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami is open 24/7, much like the Turkish Lounge. It’s nice that there are two lounges in the terminal that never close, not that there are many flights between 12AM and 6AM.
Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami entry requirements
There are a couple of primary ways to gain access to the Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami:
- The lounge can be accessed with a Priority Pass membership; you can access the lounge for at most three hours, and there may be capacity constraints during peak periods
- This acts as one of the Star Alliance lounges in the terminal, so it can be accessed by Star Alliance business class passengers and Star Alliance Gold members on an eligible itinerary; Star Alliance airlines departing the terminal include Air Canada, Copa, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish, and more
As you’d expect, the lounge gets busiest in the afternoons and evenings, when we see the most Star Alliance flights departing from the terminal. But for all practical purposes, the lounge has very similar entry requirements to the Turkish Lounge.
Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami seating & layout
The Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami is 6,559 square feet, with seating for up to 158 guests. The lounge primarily consists of one large room, with several types of seating options. Below you’ll see two pictures that give you a view from each end of the lounge.
On one side of the lounge, you’ll find a bunch of seating options with small tables — some seating clusters have three to four seats, while there are also some banquettes, arranged with seats across from them.
In the center section of the lounge, you’ll find dining tables each seating two people, plus high-top seating along each side.
Then there are more pairs of chairs along the wall, each with a table.
Lastly, there are some banquettes in the back of the lounge.
The buffet area is along the main walkway of the lounge, which curves a bit.
There are then a few small rooms, separate from the main part of the lounge. The largest of these is a TV room of sorts, which almost feels like a waiting room in a doctor’s office.
In the back corner of the lounge, there’s also a business center, with a shared workstation that has dividers between each seat, plus a communal table.
There’s also a relaxation room, with around 10 chairs with ottomans, for those who are looking to relax.
Lastly, there’s a play room for kids, though it’s lacking when it comes to activities.
I should mention that the lounge is really lacking when it comes to views. The main view from the lounge is of an escalator that’s coming up from the immigration facility, and you can see a gate and aircraft in the distance.
You might notice how empty the lounge looks in the above pictures. That’s because even though my flight only left shortly before 8AM, I trekked out to the airport well before 4AM, in hopes that I could capture better pictures of an empty lounge. Sure enough, it worked out!
Even at 7AM (before my flight), the lounge was still nice and quiet, with maybe a few dozen guests at most. I imagine the lounge gets slammed in the afternoons, though.
Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami food & drinks
The Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami has a respectable self serve buffet, along with a small selection of a la carte options.
I visited over breakfast hours, and options included pretzels and nuts, cereal, cookies, oatmeal, cold cuts, cheese, hardboiled eggs, finger sandwiches, fresh fruit, muffins, bread, yogurt, and parfaits.
The drink selection included self-serve soda, water, beer, liquor, coffee (from espresso machines), and tea.
On top of that, there’s a small menu you can order off of, with little stickers with QR codes on all the tables. For breakfast, options included pancakes, roasted potatoes, arepas, and scrambled eggs with red pepper.
I decided to order the scrambled eggs and arepas. The scrambled eggs definitely tasted super powdery and dry, while the arepa was quite good (though very cheesy).
In all honesty, I thought the selection was quite decent for a lounge that can be accessed via Priority Pass, especially given that we’re talking about Miami here. It wasn’t anything over-the-top, but it felt like some effort was put into what’s being offered, and how it was displayed.
Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami bathrooms
The Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami has bathrooms in the back left corner of the facility.
The men’s room had two sinks, three stalls, and one urinal. It was a decent enough setup, but given the lounge’s capacity, I feel like it could’ve used another urinal or two. But hey, I get that redesigning lounge bathrooms can be complicated and costly.
Unfortunately the lounge doesn’t have any showers, so if that’s something you’re looking for, you’ll want to head over to the Turkish Lounge.
Bottom line
The Avianca-TAP Lounge is an exciting addition to the Miami Airport lounge scene. Not because it’s amazing, but because Concourse H & J lack lounge capacity, and this roughly doubles the Star Alliance lounge capacity.
This isn’t a terribly exciting lounge, but it’s not bad either. At least the furniture is modern, and the food and drink selection is respectable. The only downsides are the lack of views, the lack of showers, and the fact that you’re in Miami (meaning people have no basic decency when it comes to behavior, like making phone calls on speakerphone, or watching videos without headphones).
What’s your take on the Avianca-TAP Lounge Miami?
I popped in there in April for a 16:30 departure and it was so slammed there were people standing and eating, it was a nest. We walked in and out.
If they get some capacity controls it would add value. Surely this highlights the business case for a standalone lounge operator?
It looks like it's well maintained. However, a few simple improvements:
- multi colors for the chairs, blue is a happy color; get rid of the monotone gray/black
- wallpaper with a pattern or motif or airline logos; solid color wallpaper is sterile, depressing
- improve the lighting; bright (to a point) is OK. Tone it down as you move to the evening
- nice background music; not too loud, covers...
It looks like it's well maintained. However, a few simple improvements:
- multi colors for the chairs, blue is a happy color; get rid of the monotone gray/black
- wallpaper with a pattern or motif or airline logos; solid color wallpaper is sterile, depressing
- improve the lighting; bright (to a point) is OK. Tone it down as you move to the evening
- nice background music; not too loud, covers the din of phone conversations, boisterous individuals, clack and clang of dishes, etc
- Food looks sufficient; let the cooks throw in some regional delights to spice things up (ie: gumbo; red beans, rice & sausage, etc)
- people appreciate cleanliness over fancy fixtures in the bathroom; this sends a subtle message about the rest of the facility as being hygienic
- don't over promise and under deliver; just keep it focused, convenient, clean, and functional.
I remember accessing this lounge when it was just an Avianca lounge before COVID. The layout now is exactly how I remembered it. Guess Avianca/TAP just reupholster the furniture, and slap some new paint to the walls?
@ Waynaro -- Indeed, this was the former Avianca Lounge, and it stayed closed for a few years following the pandemic. I guess Avianca couldn't justify the cost of operating the lounge on its own, so it partnered with TAP to reopen it.
How bland. Bland interiors. Bland seating. Horrible lighting. Total miss. If airlines are trying to use their premium lounges as a sales and marketing tool, this club missed the mark. Anyone know why at a major gateway like MIA the alliances don't just build out one lounge for all of their carriers. Airlines like DL who want a more premium experience could opt out and open their own lounge. *A has enough flights out of MIA to seem to be able to justify it.
My guess is it only really makes sense for *A if United is/would be operating flights to the same terminal since of course they would be providing the most overall lounge traffic/business from their hubs.
But as you note, Delta and its partners (AF/KLM/VS) do share a lounge of their own which I thought was pretty good.
I see that interior design was an afterthought. Good analogy with the Dr waiting room.
I haven't noticed this, or, it happens often enough everywhere in the world I've stopped noticing because I've tuned it out. When I go to Miami, I stay in Brickell. People there are refined and high class. Behaviorally it reminds me of the West Village in Manhattan. Architecturally, I happen to prefer the modern...
I haven't noticed this, or, it happens often enough everywhere in the world I've stopped noticing because I've tuned it out. When I go to Miami, I stay in Brickell. People there are refined and high class. Behaviorally it reminds me of the West Village in Manhattan. Architecturally, I happen to prefer the modern vibe of Brickell; quaintness and cobblestone mean little to me; unfortunately my firm has no office so I can't move there.
Ben I know you are gay so I may need to say this out loud, the women in Brickell are beautiful. I was out for a run on Brickell Key and literally 100% of the women were fit and gorgeous.
Pitbull said it best. There's nothing like Miami's heat.
Brickell and all of Miami are a trash heap. Brickell is the worst. Congested and gross and too many people preening. The whole city is a dump and the people with their entitlement, arrogance, and downright nasty behavior are the worst.