Need advice on United Airlines issue
 

I didn't qualify for a bereavement fare because I wanted to fly home before my grandmother died. I paid $1300 for a ticket for myself and three year old on Expedia for United Airlines. However, my grandmother died on my last week and the funeral was the same time as the flight. I had too many duties to fly home. (Live in Hawaii visiting Okla.) United couldn't get me on another flight until two weeks later and still charged me $200 to change it. They said I could contact Customer Relations. My husband and I called round the clock for three days, we emailed and faxed. We couldn't get through and no one responded back. During those 3 days the next available flights kept getting later and later in the month. Due to a lot of issues this year, money is tight. Is there anyway they will help me out?

I'm not quite clear here...are you home now and trying to get some of the price refunded...or are you still in Oklahoma trying to book a flight home???

You can always try the old ink and paper method. I'd search out the names and addresses of higher ups at corporate headquarters and then copy them on a letter to Customer Relations. They might not be so quick to deny your request if they know someone higher up might question their response. When I took my business law classes, a very wise professor told us that when you complain to a company, start at the top. His reasoning is that the guy at the bottom might have to correct the situation, but everyone between the top and the bottom will know about it!

If you get turned down, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you gave it your best shot.

I had a recent complaint with OfficeMax and did this. Before I knew it, I not only received the Gift Card I was redeeming sales receipts and barcodes to get, but it was for a larger amount than what I was due to receive.

Good luck! Personally, I think the airlines rip people off during their most vulnerable and desperate times.

If you are still just trying to get home, you could go to the airport and try speaking with a ticket agent there or customer service in person.

Just to add to Heartburn's comments about going to the top, I once heard this statement, and I think it was from Peter Greenburg, the travel expert, who said, "Never take a no answer from someone who isn't in the position to give you a 'yes' to begin with".

I think it is important to remember that Bereavement tickets cost the airline money because it is one less ticket they can sell at their regular price. They are done as a nice service, but are not obliged to provide for them.

Given that, acting like there's an entitlement to a cheaper fare and then complaining when you don't get it seems a little ungrateful. If people contrinue to push their entitlement to a service, what prevents an airline from getting rid of them instead dealing with the hassle.

I never thought berevement fares were such a great deal. A few years ago, before I was so travel savy, I needed one last-minute for a death in the family. The best fare I could find was $1800; American Airlines gave me a 50% discount. $900 for a round-trip ticket isn't exactly cheap for a coach ticket! $1800 is ridiculous.

Recently I had to fly again last-minute. This time I found an America West one-way fare for $227 and wound up taking a direct Contential flight home for about $390. I was at the whim of no airline - I booked each of these at the last minute. No one was doing me a favor.

Andrew

Sounds harsh, I know, but airlines are in no way obliged to offer reduced fares to the bereaved.
Airline fare structures are set to take maximum advantage of last minute fliers.
Why?
Because >90% of these tickets are sold to business travellers who often can't plan too far in advance, and the airlines know that businesses have "deep pockets" and will pay much more than leisure travellers.

So bereaved fliers get lumped into the business traveller price structure.

In addition, many people have come to believe that airlines should offer reduced rates to the bereaved, but people don't seem to expect hotels or car rental agencies to offer reduced rates (and many hotels and rental agencies raise last minute rates for the same reason the airlines do).

I'm sorry to hear about your Grandmother, islandmom. I think the idea of writing to the Director of Customer relations and explaining your situation is good.

As others have suggested, bereavement fares are not so low, but they can be gotten on short notice. $1300 for two from Hawaii to Oklahoma RT might be better than the bereavement fare that would have been available. I once got one from Portland OR to Chicago and it was $800!

Good luck.

Aaaahhh, Peter Greenburg. The Travel Nerd.

Sorry about Grandma but Hawaii is very expensive to fly in and out of.

I'm also a bit confused. Are you still in OK and trying to get back to Hawaii? If so, I would just go to the airport and try to go standby instead of calling to find a confirmed seat. Bring any documentation you have of the funeral and if you get a sympathetic agent, they may even waive the change fees. Good luck!

I'm now a bit confused too as to where you are currently. It seems like you are stuck in Oklahoma and are trying to get home sooner than two weeks from now.

If this is the case, I have to disagree about writing to the Director of Relations. While it sounds good, there is no way you would get a timely response, so it's basically pointless. Again, I think the only way is to go to the airport and see if a ticket agent can help reroute your trip or to fly standby.

Everyone is talking about that you have to expect bereavement fares to be expensive and to suck it up, etc... but Islandmom doesn't seem to be complaining about the cost. She already paid for the ticket and the change fee... she just wants to get home sooner than they are telling her she can.

I've bought bereavement fares from United and they were very accommodating and helpful. Some airlines will give you bereavement fares if someone is seriously ill, I think, but I'm not sure on that.

The reason bereavement fares are so expensive is because you are paying only 50 pct for a regular fare ticket. Therefore, there are no restrictions on it whatsoever. It's not the same as a restricted, nonrefundable ticket. Thus, you can cancel it and get a refund or completely change the return date whenever you want with no penalty. I bought one on United at perhaps 50 pct off and did have to change dates as you never know how things will work on and it was great.

I think the issue here is that islandmom did NOT buy a bereavement fare, she bought a regular ticket of some kind which is exactly why there was a change fee for two tickets ($100 each, I guess). Nothing about this seems very unusual or anything to complain about. I would guess that two bereavement fare tickets RT HI-OK might not have been cheaper than that, anyway, so I don't think there is any loss here. If a bereavement fare would have been cheaper for the return ticket, I can see requesting some fare change for that give her grandmother died during the visit and she couldn't return on time. I suspect it might not be possible because the ticket wasn't purchased under those rules, however.

I think the ideal thing in such a case when you don't want to pay for the bereavement fare (I really appreciated it myself given the changeability) is to buy something from Priceline, Hotwire or a consolidator. This is also a good time to use FF miles if you have them.

As I said before, I found recently that I did OK with one-way fares booked at the last minute. A changeable berevement fare would have cost me more. But, fares are your airport may vary.

If you can fly Southwest airlines, their maximum one-way (completely refundable) walk-up fare is $299 + tax.

Andrew

The issue is not with United. It is with Expedia. United offers it's own emergency fares. She bought her fare with Expedia...it is a restricted ticket to a restricted route and price.

Bereavement fares do not cost airlines all that much money, if any at all. If the seat is available, they may not have sold it at all in the first place. They do it because it might sell a seat they mightn't have otherwise sold, because it's good PR, and because the fare structure is so drastically out of whack that the last-minute fares can be 10 times the advance purchase fare (which is not the case for car rentals, hotels, or anything else you might want to name). (BTW they aren't obligated to offer freq.flyer miles and awards either, and those aren't costless to the airlines.)

Otherwise, all they are losing is the difference between the last-minute full-fare price and the bereavement/compassion fare, which is usually half the full-fare or an amount roughly equivalent to an advance-purchase discount fare -- and usually not the lowest fare at that.

So, as others have noted, it's not usually a hugely discounted fare but "fair enough," and can make the difference (e.g. $1300 vs. $700, $800 vs. $350) between going and not going.

In islandmom's case, however, she complicated things for herself considerably by going through Expedia. I have no idea how United, Expedia, and islandmom are going to sort this out but it's probably too late for anything other than someone doing something out of sheer goodwill.

But for everyone else, the moral is clear: call the airline first and ask about a "compassion" fare. It may or may not require an actual death/funeral, although you will very likely be asked for documentation of whatever the crisis is. American Airlines has been exceptionally "compassionate" and helpful to me on 3 separate occasions, and it's possible United MIGHT have been equally helpful had islandmom started with them before turning to Expedia.