We just received word that my husband's cousin passed away unexpectedly yesterday. Now we are stuck scrambling to find flights to Chicago without paying a fortune for a last minute flight. My husband called a couple airlines yesterday and was told (by many) that they no longer offer bereavement fares.
Any ideas or suggestions where we might be able to find reduced airfare for such an occassion?
Southwest is your best bet. Direct service to Midway. It will still be expensive, but not as bad as the others.
Unfortunately my mom went through the same thing when my Uncle passed... They don't offer discounts like that anymore~
Southwest has good fares, however, most are not nonstop and take a while to get where you are going.
I've not used a bereavement fare in 4 yrs so I don't know if that is even offerend anymore.
Do you have frequent flyer miles? We fly a lot so we are usually sitting on 3-4 free southwest tickets and 4+ American Air tickets which come in handy for last minute stuff.
Southwest is easy to work with, I'd check with them first. They've allowed us to make changes, etc several times with no charges, etc. They are more forgiving and understanding than most airlines
I'm sorry about your cousin.. Hopefully someone will work with you.
Unfortunately...with the financial situation for the airlines and the cost of gasoline....you are going to end up paying a LOT for these tickets!! It might be cheaper to consider going by car ..it could be done in 2 days. Or possibly your husband could go by himself...unless you were very close to the cousin also and feel like you need to be there. It is too bad that the cost is so prohibitive but it is just a fact of life now a days
Most airlines no longer do a bereavement flight and unfortunately the "last minute" seats are no longer discounted.
Couple of thoughts-
1. Try to fly stand-by (call first and see if they allow this)
2. Try to fly out of a major airport rather than smaller city
3. Use the airline's website, not the "search engine" sites b/c they charge a fee on top of the airfare
4. Be somewhat flexible on your dates/times
5. Have your husband go by himself rather than having the whole family fly out. I have a wedding this summer in GA and the tickets are $500 per person, no matter what. I'm going by myself b/c we just can't afford to have the whole family go. My husband is sad that he is missing the event, but sometimes it just can't happen.
Worst case scenario- see if there is a train or bus option.
My uncle passed away last week. My inlaws were told by the airline that their tickets were over $1000 each when they called. I was able to do some on line searching and found them tickets for $530 each. If you go to the airlines actual site, it seems to help. With alot of them if you are flexible with your days, that helps (thats what helped with my inlaws-but the person on the phone isnt going to tell them that) They ended up flying Southwest.
Nope, you're out of luck! We had the same problem last year when my husband's grandfather passed away. You can check sites like cheapoair.com and expedia.com. It's cheapest to travel Tues, Wed, Thurs. Sorry about your husband's cousin.
