Nepheline

We're thinking of renting a house on Perdido Bay. We fly Southwest on points and were pretty excited to see flights from Manchester to Pensacola. However, after entering our proposed travel dates, I found that SW plans to discontinue flights into Pensacola and the closest airport I can find is Panama City. I looked at Google and it appears it's at least a 3 hour drive. Would someone who is familiar with that route care to comment on the traffic issues and time involved? I'd appreciate any feedback.
Thanks in advance.
Gail

AustinTraveler

It doesn't take three hours if you take I-10. It can take longer than three hours if you take Hwy 98 all the way, especially in summer.

Have you considered changing your house plans and renting something east of Destin. That's really a beautiful area.

Where did you read that SW is discontinuing flights into Pensacola? That service just started!

Cranachin

Southwest.com shows flights to/from PNS available through January 4, 2015. You can't books flights for certain city pairs for large chunks of October, November, and December. Flights HOU-PNS and BNA-PNS are available for the entire period, however.

Nepheline

AustinTraveler and Cranachin:
we want to go in March - however, that's too far off to be on the SW schedule, so just to see what my options for flights might be, I plugged in January 4 and 11th and got a message saying they were discontinuing service to Pensacola. I didn't pay attention to the exact date because it was way before when we want to go.
Actually, I found the house first, just browsing, and it looks perfect for our needs, so then I looked at how to get there. I was quite happy to see that it is only 23 miles from Pensacola airport, and quite disapptd to have that message come up. I suppose I should give SW a call since you say that service just started. Yet another reason to love the Forums! If I get any info from SW, I'll add it here.
Thanks for input.
gail

Nepheline

A quick correction: the dates I used were in December because the schedule only goes through 1/4

Here is the message I got when I entered the December dates:
"Published scheduled service between (Manchester - MHT) and (Pensacola - PNS) will be discontinued on 12/01/2014. Please select an alternate date"

gracie

I live in Panama City and have driven to Perdido Bay many times to visit friends. My most recent trip was a few months ago. Just so you know, the Panama City airport is in the middle of nowhere. It is actually between Panama City and Destin, but not on the coast. From the airport, it is easily a three hour drive to Perdido Bay. You will add at least 40 miles to your drive by taking I-10. It just depends on whether you want interstate or not, and the time of day. Traffic gets pretty heavy on Highway 98 in the afternoon, and if you get behind a school bus, it will seem like forever. Also, you could get into some heavy traffic around Hulburt Field, a local military base on HIghway 98.

Cranachin

Nepheline,

Only certain cities are being discontinued for service to/from Pensacola. For example, (connecting) service to St. Louis and San Diego is being discontinued, but service to Chicago and Los Angeles is not.

Nepheline

Cranachin: I called the usual SW phone number and the agent seemed surprised but agreed, after checking that that message comes up from Manchester to Pensacola. She told me to call the Customer Relations number for more info. I've been trying to call the Southwest Customer Relations number for 2 days and only get a busy tone (judging from what I found on the internet when looking for another number, I'm not the only one). You're probably correct, that it's only certain destination/origin combinations, but I finally just sent SW an email asking if there is any chance the service would be reinvigorated in March...
Gracie: thanks for the travel info. We once flew into Raleigh-Durham for a trip to Asheville and the drive was about this long (again, it was to accommodate the use of SW points)and it was just a REEEAAALLLLYYYY long drive, and I think as much as we'd like to rent this particular house, the drive from Panama City might preclude it. Appreciate your input.
gail