<p>Do air fares get cheaper the closer to the departure date?</p>
<p>We need to leave for a funeral Saturday about a 1000 miles away and the fares have gone up $400 in one day! Should I book now or wait until tomorrow and hope they go down?</p>
<p>Also do you think airlines give discounts for funerals anymore?</p>
<p>It’s a crapshoot but they generally go up the closer you get to departure – significantly! There are exceptions depending on how far out you are but it doesn’t sound like you have much time so I wouldn’t chance it. </p>
<p>Also, I don’t know if they still offer them but people used to be able to get a specially discounted bereavement fare if travelling due to a death in the family. I got one a few years ago. It might not hurt to ask. Even if they do offer them though, they still might not be the lowest fare available.</p>
<p>A travel website says that the policy varies. For those airlines that offer a discount, remember that they are discounting last-minute full fare, so it can still be considerably more expensive than booking in advance. “Proof of death, as well as kinship, is usually required” for the discount.</p>
<p>My suggestion would be to try Priceline’s Name Your Own Price feature (exact flights unknown) or look for a last minute air+hotel package and don’t use the hotel.</p>
<p>Bereavement fares, if offered, are generally not a good deal. Airline pricing is very dependent on the route and what the airlines’ pricing software thinks would net the airline the highest profit for the flight(s). Sometimes you will see one last-minute flight option that is half the price of the other options.</p>
<p>They sometimes go down but usually go up and as FLVADAD said, it could go up significantly.</p>
<p>Airlines rarely lower their prices nowadays simply because most flights are full. I was in the same situation as the OP last year, even worse since we have to fly overseas, and observed that the prices only kept going up the longer we waited as the planes filled up quickly.
The trick to fly now is mentally set a price you are willing to live with and book at that price, don’t look back. Sometimes a low teaser fare appears, grab it quickly since it may only last a few hours. That’s what happened this year to us when a price seems too good to be true, a full $400 lower per ticket. I bought them and the next morning the price went up match competitors’ prices. You win some, you lose some…</p>
<p>No, but some airlines the fares doesn’t vary much while others do. We were in similar situation last year and had to book an overseas trip. Air New Zealand was much cheaper than British Airways or Virgin Atlantic by half.</p>
<p>I just booked flights for a funeral next Wednesday. Travelocity was about $2300 for 2 round trips (Albany-Seattle). Southwest let me buy the needed points to meet a free flight requirement for (drumroll) $200! (No availability on the return, or I could have paid another $250 for that part). The return flight is on United for only $270 ea.</p>
<p>prices go up at about 6 weeks before a date. That said, the best prices are usually on late (2am) Tuesday thru Wed. It changes but if you look often enough you will see patterns. The worst days to book are always Sat and Sun. Yep, live on the West coast and D went to school on the East coast. I actually got up at 2-4 am to book flights on a Tues.</p>
<p>It has been several years since we traveled in a bereavement situation. One thing that worked for us… using miles/points, but because of bereavement they opened up seats that would not have been available. We travelled first class, I remember, but don’t remember whether we used first class quantity of miles/points or whether they upgraded us.</p>
<p>I have also found it helpful to mention bereavement for hotel reservations if you need them. We were able to stay in our hotel of choice, which had no rooms available per the website, because hotels do keep rooms available for special situations and a phone call to the actual hotel stating that we were going to a funeral opened up rooms for us and two other parties travelling to the same funeral.</p>
<p>Sorry for your loss and good luck with your travel arrangements.</p>
<p>We were asked to provide neither proof of death, nor kinship… in fact, we were not relatives but the closest and longest of friends… however, that did not come up. I’m a little unclear on how one would provide proof of death - Death Certificates, for example, typically take far longer to receive than the time in which a funeral would occur. Similarly, you would often be making travel arrangements prior to publication of obituaries.</p>
<p>It’s true, jmmom, that normally you can’t provide a death certificate at the time you’re travelling. To get the bereavement rate when you book, you can give the carrier the name and phone number of the funeral home so that they can verify (or name and phone number of the attending physician if it’s a case of a gravely ill relative). If you have neither, you have to book full-fare and then submit a death certificate afterward for a refund of the difference. </p>
<p>I can certainly understand why the airlines would require proof of death. There are plenty of travellers who would gladly pose as bereaved relatives to get the discount, if proof were not required.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that you were able to get a discounted fare to attend the funeral of a friend. All the sites I looked at stated that the discount is only available to relatives.</p>
<p>Make sure to check out Kayak.com. They sift through all the various travel websites.</p>
<p>Also, as noted above, make sure to also look at two one ways, rather than a round trip. That can sometimes be cheaper with two different airlines.</p>
<p>Also know that Southwest does not use Kayak.
Safe travels</p>
<p>It’s worth calling the airline directly to ask about bereavement fares. And if overseas travel is involved you might start with the non-domestic carriers. When we were trying to fly our son home on short notice for his grandmother’s funeral Lufthansa gave us an airfare about half the price of the regular fare, and the agent on the phone could not have been more sympathetic. United and Delta, zip. Just a business transaction to them.</p>
<p>Hi Sillymilly…sadly once you are within the 7 day time frame the fares almost always skyrocket higher.</p>
<p>However there a couple of things you can do. Check doing each leg as a one way. Sometimes a flight will have more availability and the airlines will drop the price to try to fill the seats. You don’t mention where you are trying to fly to…if you let us know you may be able to go into an alternated airport that is within an hour away. Many times these alternative airports are not well known so people do not check those flights.</p>
<p>Kayak can help. Yes Southwest does not allow aggregate sites to take their fares so you will have to check them directly. Have you checked Spirit Airlines also? They run unadvertised specials…they are not my favorite airline as they charge for every little thing, but in a pinch they maybe significantly cheaper.</p>
<p>Bereavement fares are generally pretty high. The airlines did away with them for the most part a number of years ago. </p>
<p>Priceline is an option, however you have to be aware that you may travel anytime between 6am and 6pm and you can have up to 2 connections. It is also non changeable and non refundable for any reason at all!! NO flexibility here at all.</p>
<p>So sorry for your loss! I hope that you are able to find something that does not break the bank…</p>
<p>
It wasn’t actually a discounted fare. As I mentioned, it was the reservations agent giving seats, using miles, on a flight where no such seats were available. Don’t know if they have a policy like that, or whether it was the milk of human kindness. I just wanted the OP to know that she might try to open up ability to use miles/points… rather than seek the bereavement fare. Might be an option.</p>
<p>Kind of what 3Trees mentions - a very sympathetic reservation agent, wanting to help.</p>
<p>Gotcha…</p>
<p>Farecast.com graphs when prices might rise or fall over a matter of weeks, months. It’s not relevant for this next trip of yours. </p>
<p>It’s helpful for advance purchases, for example: booking flights for college students when you know the exam times long in advance. Wait to buy the ticket according to the graph shown on the website.</p>
<p>Not sure if it has been mentioned but Kayak has something that will automatically send a reminder of the fare if you have performed a search on Kayak. In my case I seached for an LA to DC round trip about five weeks ago for a mid-June flight. The e-mail received today said the fare has gone up about $200 for the fare I inquired about…</p>