A little bit of background: I'm originally from Japan and I currently live in the Washington DC area to go to college. My parents are around the Tokyo Area. So, my great aunt who has been like a second mother to my mom and a second grandmother to me (I only knew one grandparent, my grandmother on my mom's side who passed away when I was 12) is dying. She's in Miyazaki, which is the southern big island of Japan. I want to go for the funeral and also support my mom. She knew this was coming (my great aunt is like 91) but she's still very upset. I'm also very sad.

I have a friend who works for ANA but she told me that tickets are oversold for the next 10 days and she can't hook me up with a discount anyway. But what she did tell me is that United has family emergency specials. Does anyone know that this is true, and how cheap are the specials?