Friend died out of town- cost to fly his body home will be?
Aug 15, 2006, 6:30 pm
#16
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 632
Originally Posted by AinA
Not to lower such a traumatic topic to mere cost, but the OP did have concern for the deceased's family's ability to afford the cost of transport, but it has been my experience that going through funeral homes for ANYTHING is overpriced, they totally take advantage of the fact that grieving families are not going to shop around. Sorry to all the funeral home owners out there but this has been my experience.
-A
-A
Anyone who needs to or wants to CAN shop around. Funeral homes are highly regulated and need to have price lists, etc.
I am not in the industry, but am thankful for the dedicated professionals, including the poster who took the time to provide his information.
Incidentally, my MIL recently passed away in FL, and the call to the NY funeral home that the family used handled everything ... the pick up from the hospital in FL, the embalbming necessary prior to shipment, etc.
The caring, compassion was amazing, and we were consulted on pricing throughout.
SO - long winded way of defending most of the funeral directors who do a job with few would want. Pick the right one, let them know your price points.
Aug 15, 2006, 6:44 pm
#17
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Detroit
Programs: Northwest Platinum
Posts: 1,533
Originally Posted by TrinaLC
I don't think that is fair. In my experience, funeral homes perform amazing services in the time of deepest need. In this day of transparent pricing, most do offer much better packages than they used to, but at the end of the day, getting everything taken care of in a compassionate, caring way, no details less unattended is, well, priceless.
Anyone who needs to or wants to CAN shop around. Funeral homes are highly regulated and need to have price lists, etc.
I am not in the industry, but am thankful for the dedicated professionals, including the poster who took the time to provide his information.
Incidentally, my MIL recently passed away in FL, and the call to the NY funeral home that the family used handled everything ... the pick up from the hospital in FL, the embalbming necessary prior to shipment, etc.
The caring, compassion was amazing, and we were consulted on pricing throughout.
SO - long winded way of defending most of the funeral directors who do a job with few would want. Pick the right one, let them know your price points.
Anyone who needs to or wants to CAN shop around. Funeral homes are highly regulated and need to have price lists, etc.
I am not in the industry, but am thankful for the dedicated professionals, including the poster who took the time to provide his information.
Incidentally, my MIL recently passed away in FL, and the call to the NY funeral home that the family used handled everything ... the pick up from the hospital in FL, the embalbming necessary prior to shipment, etc.
The caring, compassion was amazing, and we were consulted on pricing throughout.
SO - long winded way of defending most of the funeral directors who do a job with few would want. Pick the right one, let them know your price points.
They do often overcharge, and can often get away with it because it is a time of need, and who wants to haggle about the price of a loved one's last rites?
They do do a job that is important, and in most cases, people (knowingly or unknowingly) overlook the pricing setup. I know I have for loved ones deaths.
This does not change the fact that they make a very handsome profit doing so, and that if one wanted to do the arrangements themselves (if it were possible), they would save a significant amount of money (such as if they were to arrange the shipping themselves). Granted it would require much more work, and may not be pleasant, but it would be cheaper.
Aug 15, 2006, 6:58 pm
#18
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Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 13,344
One way to save on the cost of the funeral (apart from pre-planning) is to take your Minister to the funeral home with you.
We remain calm and detached while the Funeral Director tries to up-sell you and increase their profit levels. I have a couple of friends who are funeral directors and the mark-up and margins are enough to make you vomit. If you offered half of what they asked, they would still be making a huge profit.
We remain calm and detached while the Funeral Director tries to up-sell you and increase their profit levels. I have a couple of friends who are funeral directors and the mark-up and margins are enough to make you vomit. If you offered half of what they asked, they would still be making a huge profit.
Aug 15, 2006, 9:54 pm
#19
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Smyrna, GA, USA
Programs: DL FO 1MM
Posts: 1,761
I'm sorry to post without a contribution to answering your question, but I was too moved not to. I am so sorry for your loss and the loss of your friend's family. I have no doubt that this is a traumatic time for you and them. It is a testament to you and your friendship that you are helping the family to deal with this horrible task 
. I wish you the best of luck finding the answer, and with everything else.
. I wish you the best of luck finding the answer, and with everything else.
Aug 15, 2006, 10:25 pm
#20
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Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 13,344
anyone else notice the OP never responded to this thread?
Aug 16, 2006, 7:24 am
#21
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Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 799
Follow-up from the OP:
A large cost of the funeral/burial etc related to the death- out of State- turned out to be flying the family home early. The Airline insisted on charging a $100 fee per ticket plus a $250 price difference- because the low fare was no longer valid. In an earlier post on this thread, I may have said that they got away without paying any surcharge- but later information came in. My relative contacted the Airline a month later, and sent them a death certificate, but that did not do much good. The airline only offered to send a $100 flight coupon in the name of each passenger- good only for a year. The $250 fare change fee per ticket will stand.
Flying the body to the home town was not so bad but the funeral director charged alot of money in mileage for his 220 mile RT drive to and from the airport.
The morale of the story is to die in your home town.
A large cost of the funeral/burial etc related to the death- out of State- turned out to be flying the family home early. The Airline insisted on charging a $100 fee per ticket plus a $250 price difference- because the low fare was no longer valid. In an earlier post on this thread, I may have said that they got away without paying any surcharge- but later information came in. My relative contacted the Airline a month later, and sent them a death certificate, but that did not do much good. The airline only offered to send a $100 flight coupon in the name of each passenger- good only for a year. The $250 fare change fee per ticket will stand.
Flying the body to the home town was not so bad but the funeral director charged alot of money in mileage for his 220 mile RT drive to and from the airport.
The morale of the story is to die in your home town.
Aug 16, 2006, 7:35 am
#22
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: NY
Programs: The local deli gives me 1 free sandwich after I buy 10
Posts: 4,026
Originally Posted by MapleLeaf
anyone else notice the OP never responded to this thread?
I consider myself a second OP (#13) as I re-opened this discussion with the current situation my friend is facing (hoping a future need will be easier to search).
Really appreciate all (angra
) the condolences, and as usual all the good advice. I believe we have aquired a good funeral home in the US, but the concern of getting the proper care and not getting price gauged in a foreign country is well needless to say scary. I will check with the embassy as HobokenFlyer suggests.Unfortunately, most people are not very educated in this area of life at a time when good reliable information is needed most. Thus I am all for the dedicated professional; it is just finding the right one that is the challenge
Aug 16, 2006, 7:44 am
#23
Join Date: Jul 2006
Programs: AA PLT
Posts: 98
Most (/all?) travel insurance i've seen includes allowances to cover/go towards repatriation fees in the event of the death of the insured party whilst travelling.
Aug 16, 2006, 10:00 am
#24
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 1,739
Actually, if the pax's ticket was purchased with certain gold or platinum credit cards it is worth checking if repatriation of the remains is covered or partially covered under the "emergency medical evacuation" provisions.
Aug 17, 2006, 10:37 pm
#25
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: EWR
Posts: 253
I do it for a living....
Just so all of the viewers of this post are aware, funeral homes are NOT able to charge you more for a flight.
When we call the airlines to get those cargo costs, we get a price. Sometimes we actually get a discount because of volume, and we pass that on to families. When you look at a funeral director, the flight should be listed under CASH ADVANCE items....which means that that cost is REPRESENTATIVE of the cost being charged to the funeral home.
Please don't be confused by mere reputations of funeral homes trying to steal everybody's money.
One funeral home will be REQUIRED on each end. You are not allowed to just arrange to have a body taken from the morgue of a hospital to the airport. Federal and Local laws prohibit things like that. A funeral home must pick up the body and file the appropriate paperwork. A transit permit is required by the county before a body is transported out of the area. Most airlines require embalming of remains to be done before they are shipped, while other airlines will allow a person to be packed with dry ice around them for the flight. While the airlines don't always require embalming, many states require embalming within 24 hours of somebody dying unless they are directly cremated or buried. Another regulation of the airlines is the container the person is shipped in: They can either be shipped in a casket OR in a combination-unit (A hard-bottomed container with the body strapped inside)
Our charges for the shipment of a body cross-country are pretty similar. We charge our basic fees for all of staff to do the paperwork, the arrangements, the phone calls, etc.; a charge for picking the person up from where they died; embalming, if required by the airline OR dry-ice/refrigeration if not;the charge for our service vehicle, to have the death certificate signed by the doctor and filed with the county to get a permit # for transport; transportation to the airport; a casket OR combination unit; the cost of the flight by the airline; as well as sales, facilities, and transportation taxes (as deemed by the government).
Our total service charges for this service is $1,895. In addition are the taxes and a casket/combo-unit.
If anybody should have anymore questions about the shipment of human remains, please feel free to contact me, since I do it on a regular basis.
Caleb
When we call the airlines to get those cargo costs, we get a price. Sometimes we actually get a discount because of volume, and we pass that on to families. When you look at a funeral director, the flight should be listed under CASH ADVANCE items....which means that that cost is REPRESENTATIVE of the cost being charged to the funeral home.
Please don't be confused by mere reputations of funeral homes trying to steal everybody's money.
One funeral home will be REQUIRED on each end. You are not allowed to just arrange to have a body taken from the morgue of a hospital to the airport. Federal and Local laws prohibit things like that. A funeral home must pick up the body and file the appropriate paperwork. A transit permit is required by the county before a body is transported out of the area. Most airlines require embalming of remains to be done before they are shipped, while other airlines will allow a person to be packed with dry ice around them for the flight. While the airlines don't always require embalming, many states require embalming within 24 hours of somebody dying unless they are directly cremated or buried. Another regulation of the airlines is the container the person is shipped in: They can either be shipped in a casket OR in a combination-unit (A hard-bottomed container with the body strapped inside)
Our charges for the shipment of a body cross-country are pretty similar. We charge our basic fees for all of staff to do the paperwork, the arrangements, the phone calls, etc.; a charge for picking the person up from where they died; embalming, if required by the airline OR dry-ice/refrigeration if not;the charge for our service vehicle, to have the death certificate signed by the doctor and filed with the county to get a permit # for transport; transportation to the airport; a casket OR combination unit; the cost of the flight by the airline; as well as sales, facilities, and transportation taxes (as deemed by the government).
Our total service charges for this service is $1,895. In addition are the taxes and a casket/combo-unit.
If anybody should have anymore questions about the shipment of human remains, please feel free to contact me, since I do it on a regular basis.
Caleb
Originally Posted by AinA
F.Y.I. for all of those that stumble onto this post in the future, most airlines publish their cargo rates and human remains are included in those rates. See AS' here: http://www.alaskaair.com/as/www2/Car...tes-040806.pdf For example, the cargo rate to move my body from Alaska to Seattle for burial will be $370 USD, if I die in Mexico it goes down to $350 to get me back to Seattle. This tells me perhaps I should spend more time in Mexico!!!
Not to lower such a traumatic topic to mere cost, but the OP did have concern for the deceased's family's ability to afford the cost of transport, but it has been my experience that going through funeral homes for ANYTHING is overpriced, they totally take advantage of the fact that grieving families are not going to shop around. Sorry to all the funeral home owners out there but this has been my experience.
Call the cargo dept of the airline and get a rate and then work out transportation of the body from the morgue to cargo. $2,500 for transportation of a body domestically is insane, I wonder how much of that was the funeral home's handling fees? If you know the airline's actual rate for transporting the body the funeral home will be less likely to pad the bill (that is if a funeral home is even required to be involved at that end).
-A
Not to lower such a traumatic topic to mere cost, but the OP did have concern for the deceased's family's ability to afford the cost of transport, but it has been my experience that going through funeral homes for ANYTHING is overpriced, they totally take advantage of the fact that grieving families are not going to shop around. Sorry to all the funeral home owners out there but this has been my experience.
Call the cargo dept of the airline and get a rate and then work out transportation of the body from the morgue to cargo. $2,500 for transportation of a body domestically is insane, I wonder how much of that was the funeral home's handling fees? If you know the airline's actual rate for transporting the body the funeral home will be less likely to pad the bill (that is if a funeral home is even required to be involved at that end).
-A
Aug 17, 2006, 10:38 pm
#26
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: EWR
Posts: 253
I don't know any funeral homes who charge to get a minister. The only thing you need to do is give the minister an honorarium for conducting the service, if the minister expects one. Many clergy do it for free.
Originally Posted by MapleLeaf
One way to save on the cost of the funeral (apart from pre-planning) is to take your Minister to the funeral home with you.
We remain calm and detached while the Funeral Director tries to up-sell you and increase their profit levels. I have a couple of friends who are funeral directors and the mark-up and margins are enough to make you vomit. If you offered half of what they asked, they would still be making a huge profit.
We remain calm and detached while the Funeral Director tries to up-sell you and increase their profit levels. I have a couple of friends who are funeral directors and the mark-up and margins are enough to make you vomit. If you offered half of what they asked, they would still be making a huge profit.
Aug 17, 2006, 10:40 pm
#27
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: EWR
Posts: 253
Glad to see you got things taken care of. If you should ever find yourself in this situation, i can give you the phone number of a travel agency that specializes in bereavement travel. They take very good care of you.
Mileage is a large charge. My funeral home charges $1.95 per mile past a 25-mile radius. good thing we're only 4 miles from the airport.
Mileage is a large charge. My funeral home charges $1.95 per mile past a 25-mile radius. good thing we're only 4 miles from the airport.
Originally Posted by greenery
Follow-up from the OP:
A large cost of the funeral/burial etc related to the death- out of State- turned out to be flying the family home early. The Airline insisted on charging a $100 fee per ticket plus a $250 price difference- because the low fare was no longer valid. In an earlier post on this thread, I may have said that they got away without paying any surcharge- but later information came in. My relative contacted the Airline a month later, and sent them a death certificate, but that did not do much good. The airline only offered to send a $100 flight coupon in the name of each passenger- good only for a year. The $250 fare change fee per ticket will stand.
Flying the body to the home town was not so bad but the funeral director charged alot of money in mileage for his 220 mile RT drive to and from the airport.
The morale of the story is to die in your home town.
A large cost of the funeral/burial etc related to the death- out of State- turned out to be flying the family home early. The Airline insisted on charging a $100 fee per ticket plus a $250 price difference- because the low fare was no longer valid. In an earlier post on this thread, I may have said that they got away without paying any surcharge- but later information came in. My relative contacted the Airline a month later, and sent them a death certificate, but that did not do much good. The airline only offered to send a $100 flight coupon in the name of each passenger- good only for a year. The $250 fare change fee per ticket will stand.
Flying the body to the home town was not so bad but the funeral director charged alot of money in mileage for his 220 mile RT drive to and from the airport.
The morale of the story is to die in your home town.
Aug 17, 2006, 10:47 pm
#28
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: EWR
Posts: 253
Originally Posted by greenery
Follow-up from the OP:
The morale of the story is to die in your home town.
The morale of the story is to die in your home town.
Hope this gives everybody some insight.
Aug 18, 2006, 4:34 am
#29
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Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 13,344
Originally Posted by BuddyPass
I don't know any funeral homes who charge to get a minister. The only thing you need to do is give the minister an honorarium for conducting the service, if the minister expects one. Many clergy do it for free.
Even the honorarium is not really required. There are times when the only "payment" the clergy person receives is knowing the person received a religious commital and the fact that at the end of the day, the deceased was held up to God. In reality, there is no better payment.
Perhaps the only exception to a clergy person wanting some form of honorarium is when the deceased was not a member of their church, or any church, but yet the family still wants a full church service. They do take a bit of prep, even more so when you don't have a clue who the deceased is.
Aug 18, 2006, 8:59 pm
#30
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: NY
Programs: The local deli gives me 1 free sandwich after I buy 10
Posts: 4,026
[QUOTE=
If anybody should have anymore questions about the shipment of human remains, please feel free to contact me, since I do it on a regular basis.
Caleb[/QUOTE]
Great thank you for the help. Where have you been I have had to do this twice now and it is not easy. The worst was my first from Africa to US a few years ago. Family wanted the body and the cost was around 8G's. And as you state this was mostly airfare. The funeral homes we have worked with have been wonderful and considerate.
I do have a question. If the decision is to cremate, can it be taken as carry on? I have heard this has been done in the past yet these days with the need to inspect everything, it seems complicated.
The current body to transport is from Prague. What if the family wants to cremate and the family does not want to check this package with checked bags?
If anybody should have anymore questions about the shipment of human remains, please feel free to contact me, since I do it on a regular basis.
Caleb[/QUOTE]
Great thank you for the help. Where have you been
I have had to do this twice now and it is not easy. The worst was my first from Africa to US a few years ago. Family wanted the body and the cost was around 8G's. And as you state this was mostly airfare. The funeral homes we have worked with have been wonderful and considerate.I do have a question. If the decision is to cremate, can it be taken as carry on? I have heard this has been done in the past yet these days with the need to inspect everything, it seems complicated.
The current body to transport is from Prague. What if the family wants to cremate and the family does not want to check this package with checked bags?