Allegiant Bereavement Fares: There Are None, and What to Do

Check whether the route runs on the day you need

This is the question that catches people out here more than the fare does, and it needs answering first.

This airline builds its network around routes flown a few times a week rather than daily, frequently between smaller cities that nobody else connects directly. That model is excellent value for a holiday planned in advance. For urgent travel it is a serious constraint.

• Check the actual frequency on your dates, not whether the route exists. Twice a week means the next flight may be three days away.
• A cancellation is not a delay. With no interline arrangements, being moved to another airline is not something to count on.
• Look at a larger airport nearby served by carriers flying daily. A two-hour drive to a daily route frequently beats waiting for a twice-weekly one.
• Check the return as carefully as the outbound. Families routinely solve getting there and find the way back is the harder half.

If the route does not run when you need it, that is the answer — and the sooner you know, the sooner you can look elsewhere.

What to have in front of you

There is no documentation requirement here, since there is no fare or exception to apply for. But you will want these for an insurer, or for a different airline's ticket:

• 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 when one is issued — often it is not for several days.

If you already hold a ticket you cannot use

• Check what you bought. If you took the flexibility option, use it. If not, the published rules are the published rules.
• Check any travel insurance. Many policies cover cancellation for a death in the family, and people forget they hold one. This is the route most likely to recover value here.
• Check the card you paid with. Several credit cards include travel cover that applies in these circumstances.
• Ask anyway, politely. The published position is no, but a polite request with documentation costs you nothing and occasionally finds goodwill.

Of those four, the insurance check is the one worth doing properly. On this airline it is frequently the only thing that returns money.

Booking at short notice elsewhere

If the answer is a different airline, these are the things that help:

• Be flexible about the airport. A second airport within a two-hour drive often has daily service when the nearer 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 often exists when the nonstop is full.
• Book one-way if the return is unknown.
• Say what the travel is for. It will not change a published price, but it changes how hard someone looks for you — and a few carriers do still publish a compassionate fare.

Travelling as a family at short notice

• Book separately rather than as one record if people are coming from different cities or deciding at different times. One booking that has to be changed for everybody is harder to manage.
• Check who actually needs to arrive when. Not everyone has to be there for the same day, and spreading arrivals usually makes the whole thing easier.
• Nominate one person to coordinate. Four people searching separately is how a family ends up on four unconnected itineraries.
• Agree who is collecting whom. Arriving at the end of this kind of journey with nobody expecting you is harder than people anticipate.

The first hour: a short list

1. Check whether the route runs on your dates at all. On this airline that comes before everything else.
2. Establish the rough window — two days, or next week.
3. Hold a seat that roughly fits, using the 24-hour rule where it applies.
4. Decide on the flexibility add-on before you pay, because it cannot be added later.
5. Check for a travel insurance policy you may already hold.
6. Arrange to be met at the other end.

How Fond Travels can help

• We check the schedule first, because a route that runs twice a week is the real constraint here, not the fare.
• We look at nearby airports with daily service, which on this network is frequently the answer.
• We tell you which carriers still publish a compassionate fare on your route, so you are not calling one that has none.
• We explain what the flexibility add-on actually buys before you pay, since it cannot be added afterwards.
• We do the looking while you deal with everything else.
• 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.