"Medically Necessary Travel" - Booking options? Minimizing voluntary change fees?
Long story short: My dad is a stage IV cancer patient who is fully mobile and requires no medical treatment on board a flight, though he does need longer to get to/from a gate and pre-boarding so he can get settled. We need to travel 8 days from now for a clinical trial opportunity that just came up.
While we will try to work through the Corporate Angel Network (free travel for cancer patients on corp jets already going to X location), we must book a ticket in case that does not come through. So I am trying to figure out the best way to book the United tickets to ensure that if I need to cancel all or part of the tickets, I will minimize fees and/or other penalties. This is our first foray into "medically necessary travel" so I am totally lost.
I have a Chase Ultimate Rewards card and some rando legacy Chase MilagePlus (not Explorer) card. I have lots of UR points and United miles, but I lost all status due to being a caretaker for the last year. We can pay for the economy tickets with $, but we can't afford to buy fully refundable tickets. (One pax would be IAH-IAD-BDL on 3/18 with a 3/21 return, and one pax would be IAD-BDL 3/18-3/21. FYI: We are headed to New Haven, CT and trying to minimize effort of the IAH-based pax while getting the IAD-based pax there for support. This plan seems to achieve that.)
Anyone have ideas about how I can best make this happen? I might be asking in the wrong forum (so MOD should feel free to move), but I thank you in advance for any advice you can provide.
-rgustafs