I need to get my Uncle from Houston to Boston to see my Grandmother/his Mother whose death is a matter of days away. It seems that all the major airlines and discount carriers either don’t offer these fares anymore, give a paltry 5 to 10 percent discount, or offer a “discount” that’s worse than what can be found on the internet. You’d think this would get them some public goodwill instead of charging the you-didn’t-call-us-fourteen-days-ago fee for people who clearly didn’t have that much notice.:mad:
I had to fly repeatedly from Hartford to Houston a couple of years ago when my father got ill (and eventually died). 
On the last trip, I had to buy a ticket less than three hours before the flight.
Anyway, I also found that bereavement fares were a joke. One airline offered to sell me a seat for something in the range of $1300-1400 instead of the normal last-minute price of $1500. :rolleyes:
Anyway, my advice is to fly Southwest. I found fairly reasonable fares there, even for last-minute flights. IIRC, I paid about $350 one-way for my same-day flight purchase. I got a return flight a week later for about $150.
I had to pay a walkup fare 3 hours before the flight from Dubai to New York and another from New York to Pittsburgh: $1,300 + $850 (I used 20,000 miles in lieu of $850).
I thought that was pretty good for an immediate 14 hour flight.
I second Southwest. We had to fly from Hartford to Charlotte, NC (and then drive to SC) for my FIL. Still expensive, but nothing compared to the other airlines.
When my Dad died last year I checked online to see what it would cost to buy plane tickets on American Airlines within the next day or two. Then I called their 800 number to ask about bereavement fares, only to find out that they were actually more expensive than if I had tried to buy them online. I ended up using my accumulated frequent flier miles to buy my tickets, because paying the associated fee for booking less than 30 days in advance was cheaper than the tickets would have cost.
I recently flew Southwest on the spur of the moment when my father became terminally ill. Because his condition was worsening day-to-day, I wound up postponing my return. After I explained my situation the agent waived my rebooking fee. They were very nice about it and I recommend them highly.
We called American when my FIL was ill and on his death bed. Same story as above. Rates were 10x higher than their “normal” fare. Just the thing you want to hear when your family is in a crisis. <sigh>
Y’all, I have a LOT to write about this issue (having once worked for a major airline), but it isn’t all prettied up, and I wasn’t going to pull any punches, but seeing as how there’s a Doper family involved, I think I had better hold off for now.
Let me know when and if it’s okay.
Thanks
Bill
Quasi I think any further information on the topic would be welcomed by all. (certainly by me anyway)
Yes, please, Quasi.
While we wait to hear from Quasi (and I, too, am interested), my impression is that too many people (a la Seinfeld and The Grifters) tried to rip off the airlines by pretending to be bereaved. Airlines have slim enough profit margins as it is, and eventually decided it wasn’t worth the expense for the relatively little goodwill the policy got them.
Even if you ignore the ripoffs, a free fare isnt paid for by cutting out a ferrari or two from the top CEOs, the rest of us passengers get our fares raised to pay for your free fare. Eventually all things get paid for by the customers. (this is always why over the top bidding in telecom auctions for slices of bandwidth hurts us in the long run too).
A death in the family is a terrible thing, but the world doesnt owe you anything on that day. Sorry. The planes still need fuel, taxes need to be paid, and employees still need their paychecks. Also, its funny how we only expect special treatment from the airlines. Why not a free rental car, hotel, or even a free funeral?
>public goodwill instead of charging the you-didn’t-call-us-fourteen-days-ago fee for people who clearly didn’t have that much notice
If cost outweighs goodwill then guess which one gets dropped?
Sorry for your loss, but the airlines pretty much stopped these kinds of fares a few years ago. Partly because of abuse and mostly because of cost. Airlines run on razor thin margins. Perhaps someone should start bereavement insurance or the government should subsidize this instead of expecting the free market to take care of it cough healthcare cough.
Why do airlines charge more for last minute bookings? The plane is going to take off whether every single seat is filled or not. Doesn’t it make more sense to put as many paying customers in the seats as possible?
My mom died last month. I tried to get a bereavement fare on a round-trip flight from Austin to Buffalo through a travel agency run by the funeral home network. They couldn’t even find me a flight; not even when I tried flying to and from distant cities; Houston and Dallas here, arriving in Syracuse, Cleveland, Columbus or Detroit at the other end. Nothing from anywhere in Texas to anywhere in the Great Lakes region.
I eventually got a flight from Austin to Buffalo on Southwest. It was expensive ($750 or so RT), but probably much cheaper than I would have gotten with a bereavement fare on an airline like American or Delta. I’d be crazy to fly any airline aside from Southwest ever again.
My wife’s grandmother died a few years ago, and she called United Airlines about a bereavement fare from Baltimore to San Francisco. The fare was about $400 return, but that was considerably cheaper than booking a regular trip would have been, so close to the flying time (i think she flew one or two days after calling). Also, they got her on a non-stop flight, and they allowed her to change the date of the return leg with no penalties. All in all, it was a good deal for her.
As a general point, much as i love to rag on the airlines for all their shitty service and their fees up the wazoo, i also understand why they might have decided to nix bereavement fees. Apart from the possibility of fraud, the fact is that no-one expects other service providers to drop their fees just because you happen to have lost a family member.
As HorseloverFat asks, why not a free rental car, or a free hotel room? What about funeral homes? Should they provide their services at a loss, just because of the circumstances?
I’ve never heard of the practice before and whilst I can understand the logic behind it when air travel was an expensive novelty and the goodwill to be gained from “Aunt Mabel died suddenly and Trans-US Airways gave us a half-price fare so we could get to Bismarck and organise the funeral and sort the estate out” was quite significant, nowadays, air travel is incredibly cheap and margins are low, so the practice isn’t really viable.
As others have said, people doubtless abused it to get cheap airfares. Also, ultimately, the airline doesn’t care why you’re travelling. Whether it’s to go to and organise Aunt Mabel’s funeral, or whether it’s because you’re going to a concert, or simply because you want a bit of a holiday, it still costs them the same amount of money to transport you there.
I can understand waiving cancellation fees etc because of sudden deaths in the family, but I’m not really sure how “bereavement” should magically entitle people to discounts on airfares in the modern era.
I’m sorry, Kids, but the prevailing attitude is that it’s not about your loved one.
It’s about you getting to your loved one, and having once worked for USAir, I can tell you that while we appeared somber and sympathetic on the outside, on the inside all it meant to us was increased revenue.
I know that sounds like I’m being tough on y’all, and maybe I am, but I just want you to see it for what it is.
Yeah, it will be nice if you can get to Mama’s or Papa’s bedside in time, but what if you can’t?
Are you going to be cursed for the rest of your own life, because you didn’t give it your ALL?
If so, then tell me this: Who died?
Do yourselves a favor, okay?
Spend the requisite time with them while they are still here.
If you wait for that last phone call and then start cryin’ and fartin then you just loaded a whole buncha crap on your shoulders that doesn’t need to be there.
Get there if you can, and if you can’t, don’t sweat it.
That loved one is gonna love you whether you busted a gut to get there or not.
I guarantee it.
Don’t be a sucker for “bereavement fares”, please?
After it’s all said and done, you’ll just be another “goose” on the plane.
So that I don’t come off like a complete SOB, thanks for making the effort snowmaster, I wouldn’t mind having you as a nephew myself!
Bill
While bereavement fares no longer really exist, I’ve found that the airlines are still willing to do things like waive rebooking fees when my mom ended up staying with my grandmother longer than planned after my grandfather’s death. Cost us a fortune to get her up there, of course, and he died when she was in the air. But they will sometimes make smaller allowances for you, even though the bereavement fares are gone.
On the other hand, the Delta Crown Room staff kindly opened up a conference room for her for her layover in Atlanta because there were a lot of people she needed to call. They quietly brought her a bottle of water, a glass of wine, and a bowl of fruit and some snack mix without being asked, either. It’s sad that we’re surprised when people are kind.
They charge extra for last minute purchases because most of them are bought by businesses who will pay it. Vacation folks buy way in advance.
A guy from Delta told me there are basically 2 people who fly:
People who want a great deal and can be flexible - mostly vacation people.
People who don’t care about the cost but need to go exactly when they need to - business travelers.
The 2nd group pays more for tickets in most cases.
I used to work in a hotel and we were near Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, which is right in the shopping district of Chicago.
The fact was the fares got horribly abused. I am sympathetic toward people, but people in times of distress often can’t understand, the world goes on. Yes, you’re wife has cancer, yes we have rate, but you are going to Northwestern Memorial Hospital which is also treating 100 other people for cancer. We can’t give them all a $25.00 rate.
On top of that bereavement rates would get abused. Doctor’s notes are useless because most doctors will say anything if a patient asks for it. I recall we had a cancer patient rate, booked by a local “society” and it got abused too. I remember calling them out on it and they said “Well no one else was using it so it was going to waste.”
I was like “Sorry, but the room AND rate isn’t there so you and your family can go shopping.”
I won’t go off topic, but Airline and hotel rates are based on daily, sometimes HOURLY adjustments. When I worked for Starwood Hotels, we had an automatic revenue program that would adjust fares EVERY 15 MINUTES. So you could call for a rate, hang up call back and the rate would be different.
Flying is a really “new” type of thing. At least for everyday people. When I was a kid it wasn’t uncommon to hear “Yeah, my mother died, but I couldn’t afford to go to the funeral.”