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Anything to know about flying urn of ashes from one state to another?

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Anything to know about flying urn of ashes from one state to another?

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Old Jul 23rd, 2010, 02:52 PM
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Anything to know about flying urn of ashes from one state to another?

We are going through the sad but very necessary process of arranging and prepaying for our mother's (future) funeral. She prefers to be cremated ( in Fla. where she lives) but wants the urn to be installed in a cemetary niche she owns in Mass. Presumably one of us would fly with the urn. Is there anything we need to know? Can/should it be considered checked baggage? Does it need to have its own container? Does TSA need to check it?
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Old Jul 23rd, 2010, 03:30 PM
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Here's a place to start: http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtrav...rial_1296.shtm
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Old Jul 23rd, 2010, 03:33 PM
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The funeral director will give you a certificate for interstate transport of cremated human remains.
We carried them on. They went through the whole security screening , on the conveyor belt,etc.. The agent was discreet about it. Put the urn under the seat in fornt of us . We wanted to ship them to the cemetery but only the U S Post Office would do it at that time, but not priority and we needed them there faster than regular mail.
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Old Jul 23rd, 2010, 11:19 PM
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If you decide to have them shipped or even installed without your physical assistance or even presence a funeral director in FL and or MA can help. My father's remains were actually shipped UPS to where my mother was living. After sitting in the garage for a time until family argued out what to do with him (he had given us 3 choices) it was decided to take the choice of a remote fly-in fishing lake he loved in very northern Maine. No way were any of us going up there - lots of family baggage associated with his fishing trips that is not relevant.

We contacted the most local funeral director we could find, talked to him, shipped the ashes to Maine, and he scattered them in the lake - even sending us back photos and a copy of the poem he read upon dumping my father in a lake. There is a certain element of trust involved if it is not in your presence, but funeral directors I have encountered (mainly in past as hospice RN) are generally kind people who have dealt with just about every emotional, family and logistical problem associated with death one could imagine.
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Old Jul 24th, 2010, 05:18 AM
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gail - interesting story, if that's the right word. Thanks all for your responses. Will be very helpful when the time comes - and it's not years away, I'm sorry to say.
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Old Jul 24th, 2010, 06:16 AM
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I did this about 5 years ago and the ashes had to be in an "x-rayable" container for airport security, so not in a metal urn. The security guys actually didn't care at all and didn't want to see my certificate from the funeral home.
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Old Jul 24th, 2010, 06:17 AM
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Oh, and one more thing...funeral homes deal with this all of the time so they'll know what to do.
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Old Jul 24th, 2010, 07:13 AM
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The funeral director in FLA took care of shipping my father's ashes to us. It took quite a few days to get to us since they are required to be sent either certified or registered mail thru USPS. When you send things this way, each stop along the mail journey has to sign for the package which slows the mailing process down a bit.
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