F.Y.I. for all of those that stumble onto this post in the future, most airlines publish their cargo rates and human remains are included in those rates. See AS' here:
http://www.alaskaair.com/as/www2/Car...tes-040806.pdf For example, the cargo rate to move my body from Alaska to Seattle for burial will be $370 USD, if I die in Mexico it goes down to $350 to get me back to Seattle. This tells me perhaps I should spend more time in Mexico!!!
Not to lower such a traumatic topic to mere cost, but the OP did have concern for the deceased's family's ability to afford the cost of transport, but it has been my experience that going through funeral homes for ANYTHING is overpriced, they totally take advantage of the fact that grieving families are not going to shop around. Sorry to all the funeral home owners out there but this has been my experience.
Call the cargo dept of the airline and get a rate and then work out transportation of the body from the morgue to cargo. $2,500 for transportation of a body domestically is insane, I wonder how much of that was the funeral home's handling fees? If you know the airline's actual rate for transporting the body the funeral home will be less likely to pad the bill (that is if a funeral home is even required to be involved at that end).
-A