Alaska Airlines Bereavement Fares: What 10 Per Cent Buys You

What to have in front of you

• The full name of the person who has died, as it appears on official documents.
• Your relationship to them.
• The name and phone number of the funeral home, hospital or hospice.
• A death certificate if one has been issued — often it has not yet, which is normal.
• Your loyalty programme number, or enrol before you call.
• The dates and routing you need, with how flexible each end is.

The 24-hour rule

Under US Department of Transportation rules, a ticket bought at least seven days before departure can be cancelled within 24 hours of purchase for a full refund.

Note how this sits against the bereavement fare: that fare requires travel to begin within seven days, so the two rarely overlap. The 24-hour rule is what helps when the funeral is further out — hold a seat, keep looking, cancel without cost if plans change.

Booking at short notice

• Be flexible about the airport. A second airport within a two-hour drive often has seats when the obvious one does not.
• Be flexible about the time of day. Early and late departures have availability midday flights do not.
• Consider a connection. On short notice a one-stop routing frequently exists when the nonstop is full.
• Check the regional operators as well as the mainline. On routes to smaller communities the regional network reaches places the main schedule does not.
• Book one-way if the return is unknown.

Travel to smaller and remote communities

A great many of this airline's routes serve places with one or two flights a day, and some with fewer. If the funeral is in a small community, the schedule rather than the fare is the constraint.

• Check the actual frequency on your dates. One flight a day means a cancellation costs you a day.
• Look at the onward connection carefully. Reaching a regional airport often means two flights, and a missed first leg can mean missing the only onward service.
• Build in a buffer day where the funeral date allows, rather than arriving on the morning of the service.
• Check what happens at the other end. Ground transport from small airports is limited, and the people who would normally collect you are the people organising everything.

If you already hold a ticket you cannot use

• Ask about a refund or change explicitly, with documentation, rather than cancelling online.
• Check what fare type you bought, since that sets the starting point.
• Check any travel insurance you hold, and any cover attached to the card you paid with.
• Ask early. A request in the week after a death is treated differently from one made months later.

What families most often get wrong

• Waiting on hold for a 10 per cent reduction while the seats they need sell. Book the flight if it comes to that.
• Not comparing the bereavement quote against an ordinary fare for the same flights.
• Trying to use it for travel further than seven days out, where it does not apply.
• Not enrolling in the loyalty programme first, which costs two minutes and is a condition.
• Underestimating the schedule on routes to smaller communities.
• Forgetting an existing booking they can no longer use.

Several family members travelling at once

• Ask about everyone in one conversation if more than one qualifies — one call rather than four.
• Book separately rather than as one record if people are coming from different cities or deciding at different times.
• Spread the arrivals. Not everyone needs to land the same day, and on a route with one flight a day that may not be possible anyway.
• Nominate one person to coordinate, because four people searching separately produces four unconnected itineraries.
• Agree who is collecting whom, especially at small airports late in the evening.

The flight is not the whole cost

• The return date is the expensive unknown. Most people book a short trip and stay longer.
• Accommodation often exceeds the airfare once a trip runs past a few days. Ask relatives before booking a week in a hotel.
• A car is usually necessary and usually forgotten, particularly at smaller airports.
• Bags cost more than expected when packing for an uncertain stay and a service.
• Coordinating several travellers is a job worth handing to someone outside the family in the first days.

Coming home

You will not know when you are coming back. Estates, paperwork and the simple fact that families need each other longer than expected all push the return out.

• Do not commit to a tight return just because the form asked for one.
• Ask what changing the return involves at booking, not at the point of needing it.
• Change it as soon as you know, not on the day — availability is far better found early.
• Tell someone at home when you are back. The journey home from this kind of trip is harder than the journey out.

The first hour: a short list

1. Establish the rough window — not the exact date, just whether this is two days or next week.
2. Check the documents that cannot be hurried: passport expiry first, then any visa or authorisation.
3. Hold a seat that roughly fits, using the 24-hour rule where it applies.
4. Get the funeral home's name and number. You will need it either way.
5. Deal with existing bookings you can no longer use — ask, rather than cancelling online.
6. Check for a travel insurance policy you may already hold.
7. Arrange to be met at the other end.

Everything else — the hotel, the car, the exact return — can wait a day without costing you anything.

How Fond Travels can help

• We make the call and get both quotes, bereavement and ordinary, so you take whichever actually serves you.
• We do not let a 10 per cent reduction cost you the seat — if the flight is filling, we book it.
• We check the schedule on routes to smaller communities, which is the real constraint on these itineraries.
• We handle the separate request on a booking you can no longer use.
• We coordinate several family members arriving from different places.
• We answer at any hour. These calls do not happen at convenient times.

If you need to travel after a death in the family, call +1 (323) 800 6001. A travel expert answers any hour.