Hello all,

Thanks in advance for any/all information...

Is there a standard rate for bereavement flights via NW? Procedures?

Trying to get someone from SEA to DTW for Tuesday...


Thank you,
Mb

call the 1-800 number.

This isn't really MR related, but I'll tell you what I know. A lot of airlines (Delta and US I know of) cut out these fares because people were abusing them. I'm almost sure that NW still has them. I never fly them, but I did have to check recently for a friend who needed to attend a funeral in Florida. I know she had 2 choices, and 1 was definitely UA. Most of the airlines said they don't offer them anymore, and UA was the lowest. I remember calling every airline and getting 2 fares -- one on UA and 80% sure the other was on NW. I know UA's was the lowest, and that's what she went with.

I know it's not much help, but maybe it will help you some. You do have to call the 800 number to book it. You also have to provide them with the funeral home name and number and the name of the deceased plus relation to you. They really want to document this stuff to try and keep people from abusing them. I can't imagine for the life of me why anyone would use death as an excuse to get a cheap fare, but I guess some people have no shame.

I hope this helped you some and I'm very sorry for your loss.

Thank you for the quick responses bspencerco and chicaloca453.

But Im very sorry... It has been long day, I meant to post this in the NW forum.

Sorry.
Mb

Sorry about your loss. You could also try Southwest who flies from SEA-DTW. Looks like $210 ow, but that might work.

That's what we ended up doing for my grandmother's funeral. The bereavement fares were so much higher.

We just checked on Bereavement fares on Delta and they were $10 more than the Delta web price. Total joke. We ended up using miles.

That has been exactly my experience. Bereavement fares usually give people heart attacks when they realize how expensive they are - maybe 50% off the full Y fare.

One good option to check for last minute flights like this if you have flexibility to travel any time of the day in both directions in Hotwire or Priceline. They generally dont do very good on flights anymore but once in a while their last minute prices are not bad.

Sorry about your loss.

Consider trying the Travelocity Last Minute Deals search:
http://travelocity.lmdeals.com/

It's usually only good for weekend flights (travel on Thursday-Tuesday), but it can often times come up with very reasonable prices. For example, last Thursday I was looking at going MSP - JAX departing Friday...less than 24 hours in advance. Last Minute Deals quoted me something like $290 including a car rental. NWA.com and other travel sites were quoting me at least twice that for a less than 24 hour advance purchase.

Hope that helps.

Unless you have to have NW, I would go with UA for sure. They will give you the lowest fare available and also will allow you to change it if you need to for no extra charges. I would say UA is the best for these type of fares. I had to use one this year and they came out like a champ. Just have the Dr. information or the funeral homes information.

They did very well for me and I'm sure you will see they will do the same for you. The fact they allow you to change the flights with no extra costs is a plus also for us. I had to stay an extra couple days to clean up some issues and they changed the return with no problem at all.

Give them a call.

Is there any way they verify this bereavement rate? If there is no serious checking system used by the airlines, I'd like to use this bereavement rate on my next MR. Would be an easy way to reduce cost.

Unbelievable.

Also, a one-way express ticket to hell.

Yes, as other posters have stated, they ask for both the funeral home name and the deceased's name. And I have had a funeral home director come up to me and discreetly inform me that he had had a phone call from NW asking about the funeral I was attending. So it's not really the best idea from an operational standpoint.

From a moral standpoint, I think your idea is despicable. Have you no shame?

If all else fails, try Site 59.