It looks like we may have a funeral to fly to in the near future - Chicago to Phoenix. I know "bereavement fares" are not the greatest deal. I thought of using cheap tickets.com when the time comes. Any feedback? Any other way to approach this? We do have some AA miles - would it be worth trading them in (not enough for full fare)?

Have you checked on your own for a good fare? You might be surprised what kind of web specials you can find, even for one-way air travel. Southwest should have a $299 one-way walkup fare from Midway to Phoenix any time at worst. Otherwise, try an Orbitz search.

A few years ago I had a family emergency and found an America West red eye going cross-country for only like $172 one way, booked just a day in advance, so you never know.

After checking the fares yourself, weigh using your AA miles. They're going to charge you $75 to book last minute anyway, which I think is kind of lame, plus, you'll have to be sure about your ticket - changes incur a fee nowadays I think even for FF tickets.

Andrew

A guy in my office had the same experience. When he lost his grandma he needed to fly from TX to WI and he discovered that even the bereavement fares were quite high. He made a bid on hotwire and got a much more reasonable fare. I've heard priceline can get you a good fare too. The only bad thing is you will not get to choose your flight schedule. Of course you will choose the dates, but not the flight times.

You might also look into Southwest Air's new Ding program. You download it on you pc and each day it gives you bargains on many different cities such as Chicago to Phoenix.

Ding has some great deals, but they're weeks away. for example, today I would have needed to book a trip between Oct 9 and Dec 9 (or was it Jan 9) to get the deal. I doubt smokey has the flexability.

A friend needing bereavment fares a few months ago got great prices from American, which flew right to his home; but he almost booked SW who would have cost about 25% less at regular price but would have required almost 200 mile trip to his hometown.

Having just been through this myself (had to fly Chicago-Honolulu last week for a funeral; try finding that at a reasonable price on short notice!!), I'd recommend calling some of the airlines now to determine their bereavement fares and procedures. At the very least, you will be armed with that information for comparison purposes when you need it. In addition to buying my own ticket, I coordinated travel for several family members, and I found that each airline I contacted had slightly different procedures.

For example, I used United, which has a flat-rate bereavement fare between two cities that is about 25% of full-fare economy and is fully changeable/refundable without fees. For me, that was cheaper and more flexible than any reasonable itinerary I could find elsewhere, and it enabled me to better coordinate our arrivals/departures.

If you use an actual bereavement fare be aware that the airline will require you to provide them with funeral parlor phone number (to verify you are not lying, AA told me you cannot believe the number of people who lie). They also need some other info and will tell you when you call.

We used a bereavement fare once when all the flights on our route were booked solid the days we needed to go; it was an OK fare as I recall, not stellar but not awful, either.

I second the idea of calling the major carriers along your route now and arming yourself with that info; check the fares, too, so you'll know a decent one when you get it. I wouldn't trade miles for a partial fare unless you really can't afford to pay for the tickets any other way.

And it would certainly be worth a half hour or so to check cheaptickets.com, Expedia, etc. for a decent fare when the time comes, if you can manage it. Best of luck to you.

We used USAir to get our son home when his grandmother was dying. Yes, you will be put on hold while the airline verifies the emergency. We had to give the Doctor's name and hospital. We were given the cheapest available fare for travel the next day. The cost of the fare might vary depending on what seats are left. The way I understand is that advance booking usually needed for cheapest seat is not required. This was about 6 years ago so policies may have changed. In our case, it was a last chance to see his grandmother, not a funeral.

Thanks for the responses. I'll make some calls today just to see what's in store. I did some playing around yesterday and America West was just under $400.

I had to do this myself in April, needing to go from BWI to Denver. I suppose it depends on the luck of the draw, but I found a regular fare of about $230 rt on one day's notice on USAirways via Expedia. Other family members checking out "bereavement fares" from other locations in the country (including Chicago) and on other airlines were finding they were no bargain -- they were a discount from full fare and did require documentation of the death. Not worth the trouble.

The advice you've gotten is good. Call in advance to find out bereavement policies of the carriers you might use. Price airfares in advance to find out what is a good or fair price. Then when the unfortunate event occurs, check out all of your options -- including the major travel sites and the airline sites.

Check site59.com

They don't offer bereavement fairs, but they do sell last minute inventory for the airlines. They don't sell air only, they bundle air with either car rental or hotel.

I've done their air with car before when it was cheaper than just buying air elsewhere and if I don't need the car I just never pick it up.

Their air with hotel deals are typically less than air only form other sources.

Sorry for your loss, good luck with your arrangements.

Thanks cjbryant - I just checked out site59 and we can get non-stop on AA at great times and car for $344/ea.

I'm so glad I posted this question - received alot of great advice for options.