I actually just did this last week. The father of very close friend of mine died suddenly. I found that Continental and Delta would both sell bereavement fares even though it was not a family member. Fares where steep. I had more than enough miles on Delta but would need to fly via CVG or ATL to get from DFW to CLE. Continental had seats on the non-stop from DFW to CLE and it was on 20,000 miles. I was 3,000 miles short. They sold those for me at the standard $25 per 1K and I got the flights I needed for $75 total and was able to burn up those remaining Continental miles.