This past July, I found myself attending, on very short notice, funeral services for a very dear friend of mine in Los Angeles. The reservations had to be made on a Wednesday for my flight Thursday morning. Any frequent flyer knows that on a flight with such short notice, the airlines usually make you pay dearly. A local friend of mine, hearing of my flight-plight, checked fares out of New Orleans International Airport. It always bugs me when a person who has to fly from Hattiesburg immediately thinks of checking flights from New Orleans, Jackson, Gulfport, or even Mobile. Hold that thought.
Another friend of mine who lives in Los Angeles (she and I once worked together on the Richard Simmons Show) insisted I be there for his funeral services. She now works for Nickelodeon and generously offered to foot the cost of my airfare, refusing to take no for an answer. Ready to book the flight while I was on the phone with her, she asked which airport I'd want to fly from. Having to leave the next morning, the last thing I wanted to deal with was a long drive down I-59 to New Orleans or up U.S. 49 to Jackson. So, I told my friend to start with our own Pine Belt Regional (airport code PIB). Not wanting to abuse her generosity, I feared what it would cost for a flight with less than 24 hours' notice. This may come as a shock but, it turns out, the flight from PIB was about $40 LESS than the flight my local friend found for me out of New Orleans.
With a trip that came from out of nowhere, I hurriedly packed my bags Wednesday evening for a flight to Los Angeles the next morning. Scheduled to leave PIB at 12:15 PM on Thursday, I had plenty of time to double-check to make sure I had everything I needed, to brew a pot of coffee and even watch the first few minutes of The Price Is Right. Hey, I didn't have a two-hour drive to New Orleans to deal with. But, on that morning, I had a less-than-20-minute drive from my house on the west side of Hattiesburg up I-59 and, voila, I was pulling into the airport.
As I brought my bags into the terminal, I ran into the manager of our local airport, Tom Heanue. I knew he didn't recognize me, so I introduced myself. Turns out, he'd seen a column I'd written last year, here in The Pine Belt News, touting the advantages of using our local airport. David thanked me for my support, and I let him know that I've been a fan for years, going back to the days when PIB was served by Northwest Airlines with daily flights from Hattiesburg to their hub in Memphis. Today, United Express, the commuter division of giant United Airlines, services PIB with nonstop flights to Houston.
After saying goodbye to Tom, I was off to check in and, as it turns out, my morning of running into local celebrities wasn't over. Standing in the security checkpoint line with me were two downtown Hattiesburg heroes, Harry and Marcia Goff. The Goffs retired to Hattiesburg from the Gulf Coast and have made their home in what is quickly becoming the coolest part of our city, downtown Hattiesburg. Real downtown boosters, they've converted one of downtown's former businesses into their home and, like I said, they're a pair of local heroes.
But the Goffs' loyalty doesn't stop at downtown. Like me, they also use our own Pine Belt Regional Airport. Okay, our airport is tiny, compared to the larger ones that ring metro Hattiesburg, like Gulfport or Jackson but here's the thing. You'll depart from PIB on a smaller United Express jet, and, in barely an hour, you'll land at Houston's giant Intercontinental Airport. Once you land in Houston, you're at one of the country's largest and busiest airports and, from there, every major city in the U.S. is a nonstop flight away. How easy is that? The Goffs and I said goodbye at Houston as we headed to the gates for our connecting flights, them on to Austin, me on to Los Angeles.
My trip to southern California was an emotional one and ended up lasting a lot longer than I'd expected. Another one of my best friends, more like a sister to me, lives there and asked me to stay longer. I was more than happy to be with her for as long as she needed me. Well, my five-day trip to Los Angeles ended up lasting forty days. I even had to make a shopping trip to Macy's to buy new clothes and extra underwear. Hey, I'd only packed for five days! But the biggest hassle was the number of times I had to change my flight with United Airlines as I kept extending my trip. Luckily, one of my friends has experience as a travel agent, works for American Airlines at Los Angeles International, and knew all the strings to pull, making changes for me at no extra cost. I have lots of nice friends in Los Angeles.
After my forty days, it was finally time for my flight home out of LAX to Houston, then on to PIB. Everything went like clockwork, and I arrived home on a very hot Tuesday morning in August. My friends in Los Angeles were very concerned about the length of my trip because my car was parked at the airport. They were worried about what my parking charge would be after such a long trip. See, they're used to parking rates at LAX, upwards of $30 per day and more. Heck, at Gulfport, it's $14 a day, a lot less than LAX, for sure. But if I'd flown out of Gulfport, I would have been greeted with a $560 parking charge for the 40 days I was away. And what did it cost me at our local airport? Cost? Get outta here! Parking at PIB was FREE for the entire time I was away. If you're flying out of a larger out-of-town airport, and have to leave your car, don't forget to factor the cost of parking into your budget. Not to mention the cost of gas and time getting there. But wait, there's one more little chapter to my story.
With my being out of town for so long, my car's battery had given up the ghost. No worries, I just so happened to run into Tom Heanue again and told him about my dilemma. He immediately sent an airport employee out to get my battery charged and me on my way. Try getting that kind of hometown service at New Orleans International.
I've heard the complaints about using PIB. Some people moan about the limited number of flights out of Laurel/Hattiesburg and, hey, I get it. If you're flying west, like I was to Los Angeles, it makes sense for that flight change in Houston, since you're heading west anyway. But people wanting to fly to the East Coast don't like the idea of flying west to Houston and changing planes before flying east, to say, New York City. Thing is, we've got a chicken-and-the-egg thing going on here.
On any given day, I wonder how many people leave the Laurel/Hattiesburg area headed for larger airports? If more of those folks used PIB, we might grab the attention of another airline, say, the Delta Connection, offering nonstop service to their Atlanta hub, the world's busiest airport. From there, the world is only a gate-change away, literally.
Next time you've got a flight planned, take a look at Pine Belt Regional Airport. You'll be surprised to discover that prices are competitive and remember to factor the cost of gas and parking into the money you're "saving" going to Jackson or New Orleans. And don't forget, as the old saying goes, time is money, too.
Glad to know I'm not the only person around town who recognizes the advantages of flying out of our local airport. The Goffs and I agree, you can't beat flying — out of PIB! We'll be looking for you in the TSA line.
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Elijah Jones is a proud Hattiesburg native who enjoys writing. Email him at edjhubtown@aol.com.
