It has been a long time since I talked to someone with a death in the family who wasn't able to find a cheaper fare than the offical bereavement fare. AC is not stopping any carrier from flying to small communities. If some shrewd businessman sees an opprotunity to cash in on bereavement fares I'm sure they're welcome to it.

That said, this strikes me as a classic AC PR blunder, along the lines of the Salman Rushdie incident, threatening to send a collections agency after your employees etc. It was the lead story on the all-news station for most of the morning (until someone firebombed the provincial courthouse). Is there no corporate memory at AC, or a voice of sober second thought who sets off the alarm bells on these things? Maybe they should run this stuff by FTers before they send it out to the general public...