Airline stories
 

I am keeping out of the "honesty" thread, but that thread made me recall these stories re: bereavement (sp?) fares.

A woman called an airline to inquire about bereavement fares, since her grandmother died. The agent asked her how many grandmothers she had, b/c they kept track of her calls in the past and this was her FOURTH call requesting such a fare upon the death of her grandmother.

Right now I'm reading The Travel Detective. He relates that airlines see a sharp increase in the requests for these fares over the Christmas holidays. One airline told him the story that a woman called and told them her grandmother died. The funeral was on Dec. 25.....in ST. THOMAS!

WOW christmas funeral in ST THomas ??lol not even believable people are cheap and have no respect.

I don't get it. What's the problem?

I do believe the basic premise of the stories. It is true, people will try just about anything to save few $....

BUT,

why is it automatically assumed that there are no grandmas living in St.Thomas and that Christmas is a holiday for ALL? There are numerous non-christian religions represented in St.Thomas as well as in the entire US. For many, Christmas is just another day.

When I had a death in the family I was required to show proof of death before I received a bereavement fare. These 2 stories don't ring true to me. :)

People can be brazen, but for what it's worth, there is sometimes a rise in the numbers of deaths as the days shorten, temperatures fall, and people confront the holidays. On the other hand, it's often observed that terminal patients (sadly, esp. children) will seem to hang on until Dec. 26 or 27th, as if for the sake of their own or the survivors' Christmas.

That's the saddest thing I've read in a while. I'm sure it doesn't even occur to the scam-artists that what they're pretending could be so tragic.

Also, I've yet to hear of a bereavement fare that was all that good a deal, so where are their heads?

well you do have to show proof of death-
so you can make all the calls you want requesting bereavement fares- but unless you have a document to prove death - you wont get a reduced fare

Actually, when my grandmother passed away a couple of years ago, the airlines did not require any sort of written proof that she had actually died. They did ask for the name of the funeral home and the person handling the arrangements and such, but whether the airlines actually called I do not know. Never occurred to me to ask.

Being required to show written "proof of death" might be necessary on some airlines, but it wasn't on United. Besides, the fare wasn't all that much cheaper. (But I did get a free round trip ticket when I took a voluntary bump, so I guess overall the fare was lowered!)

When my mother passed away a few years ago, I also was NOT asked for written proof on Delta. The airline simply called the funeral home and verified the death.
No hassle and a nice " sorry for your loss from Delta"

The bereavement fares still out there are a least more flexible than some of the cheapie fares.You can change the return for no fee and most are not in the most restrictive class of service.

There have been several threads here on bereavment fares, and the consensus seems to be that they are very expensive. Most people felt the airlines were actually taking advantage of the traveller.

When my mother died, I used this fare and it was almost double the regular fare, The only advantage was that the return flight date was left open.

When my father died, I used priceline and got a much better deal, even considering i had pay $100 to reschedule the return.

I cannot vouch for the truthfulness of these stories, but I believe them.

My next door neighbor is the master of these type of schemes, and she has no shame in telling me about them. She tells me how she went to a toy store going out of business and bought an expensive Playmobile toy for 50% off. Then she took it to Zany Brainy, told them it was a gift and ZB gave her store credit for the original purchase price.

She told me relatives brought a wheelchair for someone to sit in at Disney, so that they would be able to move to front of the line. She thought it a clever way to escape waiting in long lines.

She wanted a phone number that was easy to remember, so she told the phone company that she had a special needs child and needed a very easy to remember phone number, so they gave her the choice of several. I told her they do this for anyone and that she didn't have to make up such a story. She feels no shame, obviously, or she would not tell me about all these things.

I'm sure I don't need to tell you what type of kids her daughters are, nor what the neighborhood thinks of her and her family.

Regarding the phone number, we are charged $10 for the privilege of selecting our number.

The toy store story sounds like fraud.

The wheelchair story sounds like they should never hope to have a family member who is mobility-challenged.

It takes all kinds, doesn't it?

The Zany Brainy story is one of theft,nothing less.Oh,well,what comes around goes around.

karens,
Your friends sounds like one that would buy a book from a bookstore to get information from it then return it for a refund (Did you read that thread ? ) LOL :-)

I've never had a problem with the airline or employer about showing proof of death when my grandmother passed. I do think they called the funeral home and verified. They also sent a card!

As far the family getting the wheelchair and pretending, that is just sad. That just basically pokes fun and takes for granted their ability to walk.

I work for the phone company and there no charge to choose your phone number. You can only choose what prefixes and numbers are available thou, not just any number but you have to ask otherwise it will be just given to you.

My Grandfather was one that died on Christmas day. He had cancer & was saying that he wanted to make it to Christmas. He & my grandmother lived in a suburb of Phoenix. I was in high school at the time, quite a few years ago, & we lived in southern Wisconsin. I remember my dad getting that call on Christmas day. Even though it may sound fishy, it does happen. This was quite awhile ago, but I also remember, that flight we took to Phoenix was on the very first 747 to ever fly into Phoenix. & when we got off the plane, there were crowds of people everywhere trying to get a look at the 747.

I have flown on bereavement fare once and did not have to show any proof, nor did they make any verification calls. (I did bring proof, though, just in case.) That was Delta, 3 years ago. They only asked which relative it was, and they booked me (for a whopping $850) a round trip ticket with no open return.

The last time I flew into Miami, my husband was supposed to fly in from a different airport and land a few minutes after me. However, there was mechanical difficulty on the plane and they cancelled his flight. They rescheduled him the next day from an airport 5 hours away, claiming all the flights were already full at his airport. This would have put him so far behind me that it would have ruined our long weekend and turned it into a 2 night trip. Furthermore, he was supposed to give a presentation at a conference in Miami the next morning. I called Delta and asked them if there was ANYthing they could do. The agent gave us a bereavement ticket for him to fly out early the next morning from the airport in town, not 5 hours away. She didn't charge us any extra. I felt kind of guilty about accepting it, but I didn't ask for it and she arranged it totally on her own. Besides, it was 11:00pm and he was flying on the bereavement ticket the next am at 5:30; it was unlikely that anyone would need it before then. It was a dilemma, though, and I still feel kind of guilty about it.

Hi Wednesday. Yes, the person who returned the "used" books to the bookstore reminded me of next-door neighbor's antics.

I don't mean to be picky, the person whose behavior I described is my next-door neighbor. I wouldn't call her a "friend". :)