Unfortunately, my wife’s mother died today. The funeral will probably be in a few days. I see tickets on regular travel sites for around 3000$ and up, including all fees. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get cheaper tickets? Thanks very, very much. Sorry for the bummer.
Where are you traveling from and how long do you need to be there?
Oops, I’m traveling from the Washington DC area. I expect we’ll be there about a week, leaving ASAP.
I don’t think you are going to be in luck here. A week trip starting tomorrow starts at $2222 on kayak.com, but that is a really awful flight (about 54 hours on the return!). The next up is around $2700. I’d try that site with some variable dates but it looks like it is just going to be expensive. I’m not sure if airlines offer cheaper emergency flights these days, but regular travel looks simply expensive.
Double check using “Cote d’Ivoire” (with appropriate diacritical marks) – Cotedivoirians are for good reason (extreme linguistic Balkanization making French as lingua franca still important, IIRC) very strong on using the official French name of their country and not its English translation of “Ivory Coast.” I would think ticket-search engines would find flights to Abidjan under either name, but it won’t hurt to check with the “official” name, just in case someone dropped an algorithm somewhere.
You can try calling the airlines and see if they offer a “bereavement fare.” It may or may not be cheaper than the tickets advertised on the net, but worth a try.
Thanks for the referral to KAYAK- I had not tried that website, and they had the best combination of options and price.
You might have better luck looking individually at a ticket to Paris and then one to Abidjan. My Mom made it to Cameroon for $500 through Royal Air Maroc that way, but she had quite a few layovers.
Seconding **passerby **- contact the airline directly. It might not work, but it might.
From what I hear the funeral fares are almost all gone now because they were never that cheap to begin with. People found they could beat those fares on the web.
Maybe try looking at a fare to Accra and go by land, though you’ll need a visa for Ghana it should be quick if you are in DC.