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My Mother needed to fly last minute to attend a funeral and just couldn't get a ticket... a Lufthansa agent could sense a problem and asked... so Mom told her about the funeral.
The agent said she would work on it and a little over an hour the agent called back with a confirmed seat on a flight that had been sold out for weeks...
The price was the same as if she would have reserved in advance...
United and American only could offer First Class at about 5 times what Mom paid with Lufthansa.
Ultra, I am really glad to hear this. (Not glad about the funeral, but I am sure you get my meaning.)
Crew Chief, I have never flown Lufthansa, but I hear such a wide spectrum of opinion of this airline, from diehard fans to folks who moan and groan about it.
Nitram, the Frontier airlines person I talked to mentioned this, too--I am sure some people *do* abuse bereavement fares; how they sleep at night I don't know.
When my grandfather died, I attempted to buy a "bereavement ticket"...
The airline explained that all airline tickets start out at the same price, but some are discounted. Basically, they wanted me to buy a ticket at first class open ended prices, but I would only get an economy seat. ($1600) A ticket without the open end would be $1500. If I sent in a copy of the death certificate within 15 days of the funeral, then I could get half refunded within 180 days. However, they had open seats for $675... this is what I ended up buying. I don't remember the airline, it was back in '97 from Detroit to Phoenix. The usual price for a ticket was about $275 at the time.
2 1/2 years ago US Airways gave us 10% off whatever the cheapest price was that we found. We had some flexibilty because it was in England and funerals take a bit longer to put together there so it wasn't like we had to leave the next day. We actually booked about a week out. All we had to do was fax the death certificate. I think we found a ticket for about $500 each. I wonder if it depends on the person you actually talked to. Ours was really great.
Airline (name withheld) wanted a copy of the death certificate and MY birth certificate to prove it was really my mother that had actually passed away... It makes me sick to my stomach to think about it!
Airline (name withheld) wanted a copy of the death certificate and MY birth certificate to prove it was really my mother that had actually passed away... It makes me sick to my stomach to think about it!
I don't have any problem with this if you actually receive a genuinely cheaper fare. After my mom died we had to show death/birth certificates right and left for all sorts of things, it was just part of the experience.
When it comes to saving $ on a bereavement fare, it does seem to depend on quite a few variables. It doesn't help that these days we have higher fuel costs, fewer planes are flying, and those ones are full.
I finally discovered my error. I went through the third party that the funeral director gave me the number for rather than going directly through the airlines themselves.
I spoke to one airline CSR and was told they could have offered me something after the fact (or before had I done it right), if I'd gone directly through them.
Live and learn eh? My back was against the wall and my brain was numb at the time.....
When deregulation occurred, so many things changed. We don't know how good we really had it back then.
.
Truer words were never spoken.
Again, I am sorry, Cleosmom.
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