How do airlines treat family members that have to book a flight at short notice due to a family emergency? Will they make them pay the full Y/C/F fare, or do they have some sort of policy on how to accommodate their grief stricken passenger.
If so what qualifies as a "Family Emergency"?
Thanks-
BT

There are so-called "bereavment fares", but quite often those are not much cheaper than the regular ones.

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[This message has been edited by jetsetter777 (edited 02-14-2002).]

I hate to sound macabre, but I suspect that one or more of my loved ones is going to die sooner rather than later and I keep a reserve of FF miles to cover exactly that sad situation.

Each airline handles it differently, if you think something is about to happen it may be worth calling all of them to see what their policy is, so that when it does happen you can save the precious time.

Stock up on miles for this, it's the easiest way.

IIRC on domestic, they usually offer bereavement fares that are a certain percentage (40%?) off full-fare Y.

The only time I needed to purchase one was for an international itinerary (SFO-LHR), and on those, instead of a discount, they waive the one-week advanced purchase requirement for REFUNDABLE fares (which are still pretty expensive) - on those AA quoted me $1300, BA quoted $1800.

Yonatan

mikey has the answer, hang on to your mi's in enough progs to get where you might have to go. pay expedite fees. you probably will get more value . fly a lot to get the mi's.

I would try one of two strategies, depending on where you need to go.

Frontier, ATA, and Air Tran have reasonable fares that do not require an advanced purchase, it only depends upon if they have the seat available for sale.

Also, check out priceline.com. You will NOT get frequent flier miles, but you may be able to fly cheap at the last minute. Use the Priceline EzBoard for bidding strategies.

http://pub4.ezboard.com/bpricelineandexpediabidding

that really depends on the airline. There was an article in a Frommer mag about exactly that question - and different airlines gave different responses and fares depending on whether it was illness, death, etc. One reporter posted the situation that her daughter was having marital problems and she needed to get home NOW and I think Delta gave them a break.In my albeit limited experience on United, they were very gracious and I was able to travel back and forth ffrom my mom's illness for about 1/3 of full fare coach. BUT the tickets were totally changeable so if I had to stay an extra day or so I could do that. For her funeral I was able to book a 7 day advance...which was not changeable but was a very reasonable price.

I have found most of the "big" airlines are very willing to sell tix for less than full fare but don;t expect any deals....they assume if it's a true energency you will possibly need to change dates/times and you want to get there NOW so they don;t really give you much of a break. If its soemthing you kmow is going to happen at a certain time you MIGTH be better off prce-wise going w/ priceline.
I also recieved different answers from different reps during my mom's illness so it definitely pays to call till you get someone friendly and responsive.

priceline is a good idea for this type of situation. if you can take their rules.

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.

I have had only one experience with this --when my father died. It was unexpected, so I needed tickets for the first flight available. No miles to speak of, so the bereavement fare was it. The cost was fairly high compared to the deep discounts (ORD-ROA around $400), but the ticket was fully changeable. That feature was used twice.

UA seems to be lenient in its terms. I did not need to provide any evidence of the death (I have heard stories, possibly untrue, of other airlines doing so.) Also, there was never a question about giving my partner the same deal for his ticket.

Overall, I agree with the other posters that if you can keep a cache of miles for this kind of event, it is best.

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

I just did this last weekend - 97 yr gpa had a heart attack. Called UA and NW both would get me out within 3 hrs on a Medical Emergency fare I had to provide the Hospital name, phone and DR name. Rate was better than I could find on the internet and both would allow an open ended ticket.
Took NW as time would get me in 1.5 hrs faster booked return for 1 week later - Gpa is a trooper and came through great and I came home Thursday.

Good Luck

Flip - JFK - MCO is one of the great bargains on AA - because of low demand and Jet Blue. AA needs to fly JFK - MCO to get the transatlantic passengers into JFK to Disney world. Thank heavens for price wars.