I've recently had to deal with this as well.

I think I "lucked out" though because I had to be in Florida. The bereavement fare on AA for JFK-MCO was $448. The regular sale fare was $117. This was a same day purchase. Go figure....

The nice thing from AA was I changed my return date and they waived the $100 fee. It specifically states in almost all their fare rules that it gets waived for death/illness in family.

Flip