Originally Posted by
eternaltransit
I sympathise with your sister-in-law's situation, but I'm afraid that increasingly many, many airlines no longer offer bereavement fares - across all markets, worldwide. I don't think any mainline network offer them - the last bastion of them, the US market, has stopped doing so: the most that is offered is free rebooking and waived cancellation fees.
If you sister-in-law is UK-based, she may have travel insurance from a financial product like a bank account or credit card which may cover the costs of the new flight.
When my dad died a few years ago and I need to get his body, myself and my mum back to UK to bury him I called Virgin and they had a dedicated department (small albeit, as I soon got to know all their names) to help. The people were normal agents who had also undergone special training in dealing with people who had lost loved ones.
I did a call round a few airlines for my sister-in-law. Some main airlines did have special fares, some did not, but would make changes for no fee, some did not even know how to spell bereavement (that is not an exaggeration, they literally asked me to spell it).
Originally Posted by
David Noble
It is not reasonable to expect the airline just to ignore availability and nto charge the fare difference
There is a HUGE difference between ignoring availability and profiteering by selling that seat at the highest possible fare rather than selling at the lowest advertised fare.