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Flying to a funeral: whatever happened to bereavement fares?
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American Airlines extends bereavement fares to include friends, as well as immediate family, of killed or injured active duty US soldiers. (Photo: American Airlines)
Bereavement fares, or those fares discounted for passengers travelling due to the death of a family member, once commonplace, have been curtailed or stopped completely by several major airlines. Many air carriers once offered substantial discounts to passengers travelling for a death or medical emergency, but this practice has slowly been discontinued.
An agent at one major airline explained that carrier’s bereavement fare was recently reduced from 25% to 15% of the full coach fare because internal reviews had shown a large number of the bereavement fares to be fraudulent. “A lot of people have friends who are funeral directors.” She explained.
It’s easy to see why airlines are reducing bereavement fares when the programs are being abused. Any waiver of a change fee or fare difference damages the integrity of the rule itself. Once it is understood an agent has the ability to waive or reduce a fee, it conditions (the more emboldened) passengers to seek excuses to have the fee reduced in the future. It's the proverbial "boy who cried wolf" situation. In his previous incarnations in airline reservations and travel agency, the Airline Industry Examiner used to get so many calls from passengers who had somebody pass away in Las Vegas just before New Year's Eve that it can only be assumed the person who is genuinely in that unique situation is also lying. Verification policies vary by airline, but seeing too much attempted abuse can sour employees on the entire program. Rather than sort out who is being truthful and who is not, some airlines have done away with bereavement fares completely.
Bereavement fares also never quite caught on with low cost carriers such as JetBlue or Spirit Airlines. Those airlines don’t offer the litany of qualified discounts that many other carriers offer, reasoning that their fares are already discounted for all passengers without any special qualifiers.
Fliers have also become somewhat spoiled by the availability of low-cost airfare. Pre-deregulation, many passengers flying for bereavement were either regular fliers that would have been able to afford it in the first place, or managed to scrape together some extra money. There was a time when air travel simply wasn't on the radar of a vast majority of the country, and a call to a florist in a distant city would have to suffice in bereavement situations.
Policies vary by airline, but in most cases the travel must be last minute (most carriers will not book bereavement fares more than a week in advance, otherwise advance purchase fares would apply, negating the need for a discount), and verifiable (most carriers will call the funeral home to verify). Once purchased, bereavement fares are normally very flexible, and often refundable.
For those still in need, several airlines do still offer bereavement or medical emergency fares:
Delta – Bereavement Fares – Medical Fares for SkyMiles members only
Alaska –Bereavement 15% off Full Y fare. No Medical fare.
Continental – Tiered discount based on fare price. Bereavement or Medical.
United – Bereavement 10% off lowest available fare. Valid for Medical.
American – Bereavement & medical. American also extends their compassion fares beyond immediately family members when travelling for the injury, death, or MIA status of an active duty US serviceman or woman.
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