<p>After a very tough couple of weeks, my husband just found out his father died today. Now we must fly back to within 30 minutes of the place where we just moved our son for his first year of college, which was supposed to be at Tulane. So we called Delta and asked about the “bereavement fare” one sometimes hears about. Not only did they want $770 each to get us from Asheville NC to Syracuse, NY–that was their idea of a discount–but when we went to use our frequent flyer miles because we cannot afford that price after the recent events, they are charging us an extra $50 each to “expedite the redemption” of miles.</p>
<p>So maybe $70 total per ticket is cheap. So what? Some of you know what some of us have just had to spend to get our kids to college twice in a week and a half. Add another trip right after that, and you’ll see why this is so infuriating. They are doing this only because they can, and it is a slap in my husband’s face. Tickets are issued electronically now, so “expediting” likely costs them NOTHING. This is what Delta does to people whose parents have died. I just thought you all should know.</p>
<p>CYTOMOM - I am so sorry for your sad news - thoughts and prayers to all of you.</p>
<p>I know the airlines are not easy to deal with at times like this. Did you by chance look at other airline options - out of RD?? Or even consider doing anything like stand-by?? I know this is a difficult time for you and they certainly don’t help the situation. I hope you are able to manage all this - you have had alot on your plate over the past 2 weeks.</p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas. All ideas help. of course, but RD is 4 hours from here, so that’s really not an option. Stand-by wouldn’t allow use of miles, so that would cost more rather than less, I think. But I do appreciate your ideas and especally your caring.</p>
<p>My deepest condolences. Having lost both my parents, I understand your grief, and then to have to deal with all this from the airlines… The saddest thing is that airlines used to give real bereavement fares, count it as 45 day in advance tix, but that went by the wayside a while ago. My relatives couldn’t come from Chicago for my father’s funeral, because all the fares were way too high. So it was just my daughter and myself and friends. God bless you. I know this is a difficult time, and every stumbling block just makes it worse. Will keep you in my prayers.</p>
<p>CTYmomteacher, I am sorry for your loss. I had a similar experience with Northwest Airlines a few years ago. The ticket agent actually went as far as telling me that if my grandmother had only died a day later, the flight would have been cheaper, because I would have had a Saturday night stay! (This, after making me produce the death certificate to get the “deal”.) I can’t repeat what I said to her in polite society!</p>
<p>I am so sorry for your loss. You have been through a lot. I hope you can work out the travel arrangements. The added expenses are really rough. Thinking of you…
Susan</p>
<p>You are all very kind. I wanted to issue a warning, and here you are expressing such caring thoughts. Cleveland, your experience with Northwest is even more outrageous. I’m farid of what would have happened to my husband’s blood pressure under those circumstances.</p>
<p>Perhaps we’re all just getting all the bad stuff out of the way in one lump this fall, eh?</p>
<p>CTYmom - My condolences as well. I remember when a friend in Atlanta had a relative in PA die, and paid a lot of money for a bereavement fare. This was probably 15 years ago. I was shocked that the airline would take such advantage of a difficult time. Now with Internet low fare sites, I would have expected a more competitive offer for you.</p>
<p>I expected a difficult time last April when my father died. I had tickets via Delta already, to return home in mid-May for my son’s graduation from Penn. When we learned that my father had worsened and wasn’t expected to live much longer, we changed my ticket. Delta couldn’t have been nicer. They waived the change fee, and the difference between ticket prices. It was several hundred dollars. I am so sorry that you didn’t meet with the same kind of assistance. At such a difficult time, it’s the little kindnesses that mean so much.</p>
<p>I am surprised that you were able to use your frequent flier miles. We have a lot, and have found them virtually useless. The flights that are available often have a ridiculous number of connections, in the strangest places. To get my mother here from PA, they wanted to fly her through Cincinnati, Birmingham, and Rome. Home through the Netherlands and several other places. Over 24 hours of travel time both ways. She is 75, and not an experienced traveller. We opted to pay full freight.</p>
<p>Anyway, our thoughts are with you over the next few days as you cope with so much.</p>
<p>ctymom - that is truly awful. If there is another airline option, I would certainly try it. We had a totally different experience with bereavement travel a few years ago. I believe it was United, but they gave us first class seats with our frequent flyer miles that would definitely not have been available without special consideration on their part (you know how few seats they even make available for FF anyway). A hotel which was fully booked opened a spot for us also. There are so many kind and generous spirits out there and then there are the bureaucratic <em>@#!</em>@&es. Why in the world did you have to get one of them?</p>
<p>If it’s not too late and there’s no other airline alternative, your H might even try calling Delta again and hope to get a different human being on the line.</p>
<p>My condolences to you and your family. I was playing around on cheaptickets and they have fares through United and US Air starting at $447. If you are not committed to delta this could be an option</p>
<p>On behalf of my entire family, please accept my deepest sympathies for the loss of your FIL. What a terribly stressful time for you in so many ways…the passing of your husband’s father, your son’s displacement from Tulane, and now this financial burden as well. I think that sometimes these bureaucratic “I’ve heard it all” types like the unhelpful person at Delta completely lose the ability to deal with an individual. I am so sorry that this happened to you.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d either call back and ask for someone at the next level up (management) or do as sybbie suggested–look around on travelocity or priceline or cheaptickets. I would think that you might be able to find a fare that is a bit cheaper.</p>
<p>Again, I am so, so sorry for your loss and for all that has befallen you recently. Hang in there, sweetie. love, ~berurah</p>
<p>condolences… It is very hard to be a “smart shopper” at times like this, but I would encourage you to shop around and find something cheaper. Orbitz has a nice feature that will look for flights from airports within an 80 mile radius of your preferred airports. We drove 1.5 hours to Philadelphia to catch a flight, instead of 15 minutes to Newark! I turned up cheaper flights from Bristol/Johnson City/Kingsport, TN … is that within range? good luck to you!</p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas, and some we will try to use. Part of our problem is timing. We are both committed to multiple solos in a two-performance Gospel Mass tomorrow morning that would be a real problem if we cut out on the them at this late date. So we really have to leave from near home. On the other side of the funeral is an MRI that I hate to put off again–no need to go into details, but it hurts! Anyway, enough whinging. We really appreciate the ideas, whether we can use them all or not, and we will follow up on a couple that sound practical without blowing our commitments to others.</p>