bereavement fares

[pitchleague]

So it looks like the wife and I will be flying up to the motherland any day now as my grandfather is holding on to his last breaths. Anybody have any knowledge, wisdom, stories, or advice on getting bereavement fares on flights? I think you have to call the airline directly and request a breavement fare, of which they'll offer you, but you still pay full fare price and are given the difference back in a rebate when proof is accepted. It's not quite like George Costanza but I think you can get a letter from the funeral home as your proof.

 

Anybody else have anything on this? I haven't had to buy flights yet but it could be hours away at the least or a couple of days, likely, at the most.

[RayKingsForemanGrill]

I had to do this about a year an a half ago and they offered me a "bereavement fare" which was actually more than what Orbitz was offering the tickets at... there was nothing mentioned about a rebate...

 

So I went with Orbitz

[pitchleague]

yeah, I forgot to mention that I would take any online fare if it comes out cheaper than anything the airline offers me

[1992casey]

The airline may ask for a death certificate. Of course, that's public record, but the family has to cough up cash for those, they don't actually have them for a couple of weeks, and you kind of hate to bug people that have a whole lot more on their minds.

 

Recently, my aunt was able to obtain adequate proof by calling either the funeral home or the church.

 

Quite a number of years ago, before shopping on the internet was an option, I found the bereavement fare was so pricey that I opted to fly one way, then hitched a car ride back with family.

[Fatter than Joey]

My experience has been -- is that they base the discount off of the highest posted price or something like that -- I may be a bit cloudy on this, but I think that they even discounted off of 1st class fares, and it ended up being cheaper to go through a travel agent or other reseller of tickets.

 

I remember thinking that the only time it would make sense to use a bereavement fare was if the flight was booked, and you had to buy standby tickets, and your situation was a dire emergency where you had to get on a plane immediately.

 

Of course, I could be totally wrong, but I remain pretty confident that you will find a better deal at Orbitz or something like that.

[UndraftedFA]

Sorry for the bad news. I also have never heard of anything good for bereavement fares. In Nov. I flew home for My Grandma's funeral. A co-worker lost his father-in-law at the same time. It was cheaper to book his own flight. I didn't even look into the bereavement further. Work booked me a flight through AXIOM for cheaper than I have flown between Tucson and Milwaukee for the past 5 years. I even flew on the Wed. before Thanksgiving. I don't know what you do for a job, but maybe they can book a cheaper flight on your behalf. I just cut my company a check before I took off.

[pitchleague]

well, it has all worked out. THANK YOU, MIDWEST AIRLINES! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

We fly in to Milwaukee tomorrow afternoon and leave on Monday afternoon. Hope the wind and ice stay away while we're landing.

 

Amazingly, I was only able to find flights for $400-450 on airlines that we were willing to take. (sorry, but $300 on US Airways/America Worst Airlines is one of those "you get what you pay for" experiences. We gave up on that crappy airline several years ago--spending a little extra coin takes away the aggravation). But Midwest was willing to give us a bereavement fare of $375 each so I jumped at it. Good flight times, too.

 

Nothing bad about helping out the "home town" airline a bit, either.

Chocolate chip cookies . . . Here I come!

 

I suppose this post would also qualify under the "what's not bugging you" thread but I won't double post.