Hi, I know this post is several years old, but I wondered what the roundabout prices would now be for shipping human remains.
I am trying to help a friend whose father-in-law passed away and they want to take his body back to Europe. However, the funeral home quoted him $16,000, which I think is a little over the top. Any funeral directors - please excuse me!! It's just that someone else I know had to do the same thing unfortunately, shipped to the same city and it cost her around 10 thousand dollars less...
Any help or ideas anyone? Without running the risk of offending the funeral home services, I told him to ask them to break down the prices. I called several airlines, and while most refused to give me a price unless I was from the funeral home, the rest of the prices were not that outrageous. I understand where there can be a lot of fees incurred by the funeral homes also, but not 10 thousand dollars-worth in fees, I hope. The airlines also told me their extra fees, which did not exceed $200
Thanks in advance!!
Originally Posted by
BuddyPass
Just so all of the viewers of this post are aware, funeral homes are NOT able to charge you more for a flight.
One funeral home will be REQUIRED on each end. You are not allowed to just arrange to have a body taken from the morgue of a hospital to the airport. Federal and Local laws prohibit things like that. A funeral home must pick up the body and file the appropriate paperwork. A transit permit is required by the county before a body is transported out of the area. Most airlines require embalming of remains to be done before they are shipped, while other airlines will allow a person to be packed with dry ice around them for the flight. While the airlines don't always require embalming, many states require embalming within 24 hours of somebody dying unless they are directly cremated or buried. Another regulation of the airlines is the container the person is shipped in: They can either be shipped in a casket OR in a combination-unit (A hard-bottomed container with the body strapped inside)
Our charges for the shipment of a body cross-country are pretty similar. We charge our basic fees for all of staff to do the paperwork, the arrangements, the phone calls, etc.; a charge for picking the person up from where they died; embalming, if required by the airline OR dry-ice/refrigeration if not;the charge for our service vehicle, to have the death certificate signed by the doctor and filed with the county to get a permit # for transport; transportation to the airport; a casket OR combination unit; the cost of the flight by the airline; as well as sales, facilities, and transportation taxes (as deemed by the government).
Our total service charges for this service is $1,895. In addition are the taxes and a casket/combo-unit.
If anybody should have anymore questions about the shipment of human remains, please feel free to contact me, since I do it on a regular basis.
Caleb