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I first learned of bereavement fares from Seinfeld. I didn't know they actually were real!
I first learned of bereavement fares from Seinfeld. I didn't know they actually were real!
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I did this a few years ago with Southwest, but that is because they do state up front that the discount is off of their \"fully-refundable\" (now called business select) ticket, which is the most expensive. Since I could pull a much lower price online (even for a non-refundable) I just bought online instead.
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Don't forget that any and all Southwest tickets can be rebooked with no change/cancellation fees. The only \"catch\" is that you'll get the money back as a voucher, not a cash refund.
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Because the people that run the airlines are jerks. They hate fatties. They hate babies. And they definitely hate the bereaved.
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Your description makes the airlines sound awesome. I'd prefer a flight full of skinny, happy people without kids.
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But they'd still let in Michael Savage fanboys, middle-aged men with territory issues and people who come back from shopping trips and sneak five carry-on bags on the plane. No go.
+1
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The reason for buying bereavement fares has changed over the years. Years ago, it was an actual dollar discount. Today, it's more about flexibility. If you called the airline today and said \"I need to fly to Chicago tomorrow, but I don't know when I can return home\" you would have to pay full unrestricted fares, and you would end up with an open date return ticket, which basically lets you walk up to the ticket counter at any future date and say \"If you have an open seat on flight 114, I'm taking it.\" That kind of flexibility costs money. Now, imagine that a close relative has passed away, and you have to fly out to make arrangements. Those arrangements could take 3 days, or a week, or two weeks. The bereavement fare gives you a significant discount for that sort of flexibility.
On the other hand, if all you're doing is flying out to attend a pre-arranged funeral and then flying back on a known date that won't change, you don't need what a bereavement fare is intended to provide.
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Nice, sensible explanation. I'd thumbs-up the post if I could.
Well, I can gesture at my monitor, but it's not really the same.
Now, how many tries will it take to submit this comment?
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I would assume they only have a certain number of seats per flight for these types of discounts. The cheaper flight had all their compassion seats booked so the agent could only offer him a seat on the next one. Does anyone know if this is true?
A+ for the agent being up front on the cheaper flight though.
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That makes no sense. An airline can offer any price they want for any seat, there is no limit to what they can do.
The question is how much will they help out someone who had a death in their family.
Will they sell the seat at cost (divide the planes cost by the number of seats) or will they profit from the death?
If they want to profit, how much will they profit? The cheapest fair or the most expensive fair.
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No, not at all. The bereavement fare is a discount off of a full-price fare. There are almost always discount fares that are cheaper than the bereavement fare.
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I know United gets a bad rap, but I had a good experience with them with bereavement help. This happened two years ago. I purchased a ticket though United for a vacation trip and a few weeks later my grandfather passed away suddenly. They allowed me to rebook our tickets to a totally different city with completely dates at no charge to me. I did pay about $50 difference in the price of the fare for both tickets, but that's it. That seemed completely fair to me. The process was easy - I just had to have the mortuary fax them something. The mortuary was completely familiar with the process and had something to United within minutes of my request. The process was painless and it made dealing with my grandfather's funeral all the less stressful.
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This example and many others are all covered in Chapter 1, Section 1, Paragraph 1 of \"Airline Fares, Explained\":
\"Airline fares make absolutely no sense, and no one can explain them or figure them out. Not the consumer, not the airline, and not even the people who wrote the pricing software.\"
Wow, definitely did not go into this article expecting to think, \"Way to go Delta rep.\" Of course, she probably just got fired for costing Delta almost $300
when i purchased a bereavement 'ticket\" in 1998. The cost of it was 89.00 with open-ended return. This was from NY-FL. Let me mention, the original departing carrier canceled their flight the following morning due to the weather. Meanwhile being rebooked on an USAir flight. That departed at the same time. Took off without a problem.
Maybe mechanical issues with AA?
I had a good experience three years ago with Midwest Airlines. I live about 2500 miles away from my parents and at 600pm one night, my dad called me to let me know my mother had been hospitalized and it looked serious. I hung up with him and shopped around for flight times and fares. I finally found a flight leaving at 1100pm that night. I called Midwest Airlines and spoke with one of their representatives. I explained the situation and she put me on hold for a minute to call the hospital my mother was at to confirm she was a patient (she wasn't in ICU or anything, just a regular room).
She got back on the phone with me and booked me on the 1100pm flight. It was listed online for $850 and I paid $375. While this was higher than I normally pay when I go home, it was for a flight that left in less than five hours. It was also an open-ended ticket, which meant that I could change my return time for free if needed. Unfortunately, I used this option as my mother died and I stayed longer than I thought I would. When I called to change it, they got me on the flight I wanted and they didn't hassle me at all. They also bumped me up to their version of first class on each of the flights.
It's too bad that they are now practically a defunct airline. I called both United and Delta before Midwest and their fares were laughable (only about $100 off of the posted fares, which were also between $600-$800).
I went through this last year. In short, Delta's bereavement fare is a discount on a ticket with the ability to cancel or change with no penalty. In other word's a full fair, non-restriction ticket. So of course, a cheaper fare can be found by searching the various travel sites or even the airline's own site. These of course are tickets with restrictions.
What's really bothersome is when you ask for bereavement fares, and the agent on the phone does not let you know that the regular fare is cheaper. What a con.
Maybe it's meant to bereave your wallet of hard-earned $$$?
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thats pretty nice of the delta rep
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Last summer, I had to fly from Portland, OR to Las Vegas to deal with my father's death. Upset and frazzled, I set out calling various airlines asking for bereavement fare. Nothing was under $450. Half an hour later, my mom and I looked on Priceline and found tickets for $300 for later that day.
I have no faith in airlines offering any sort of condolences, nor am I any sort of real advocate for Priceline, but at least they came through for me at the last minute.
You need to understand what Priceline offered has nothing to do with what you were quoted from the airline When you call and tell the agent you want a bereavement fare, there is the ability to CHANGE the return without huge penalty. Try changing your Priceline fare. It will cost you a fortune. Learning to ask for what you want is the key to the whole process. Many business travelers buy full fare tickets last minute. Bereavement is half off the FULL FARE.
Sorry, I should have clarified that that was $450 one way. Regardless of the notion of changing the return flight, $450 one way when I have purchased tickets from PDX to LAS for under $200 round trip is ridiculous.
Bereavements fares are usually the LOWEST fare available AT THAT MOMENT. The moment of booking may have just been high.
I think you mean lowest UNRESTRICTED fare at that moment. Even at the last minute, restricted fares can often be found for less than half the price of the unrestricted fare.
So where's the headline \"Delta agent helps grieving family save $300\"?
How the hell does it cost that much?
I go from Wisconsin to Vegas or LAX for half (or a third) of that fare..
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I had this same problem when flying to Detroit for a funeral a couple years ago. NWA wanted to charge $200 more (on a $400 ticket) for the same flight when buying a bereavement fare. AA was about the same price as their website. The dates were set and not flexible. It was infuriating.
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Because after all the money they'll rob from you, you're gonna be mourning...
Good of the agent to actually help.
I think this is where most of the complaints about bereavement fares come from....a rep may say there is no bereavement fare when what they really mean is that there is none that will help you because the online discounts are better.