My mother's father is dying (we were told 1-2 weeks). My mom wanted badly to get back to visit him to tell him how much she love him and thank him for everything. My mother is disabled and one of her children must accompany her when she goes somewhere. Anyhow, we tried to get tickets at last minute for an impromptu family reunion/birthday party for my grandfather. My sister called. Delta wanted $person/roundtrip ticket.
My mom was shattered. Being on a fixed income and very proud, she was not about to ask us for that kind of money. We aren't just talking $ but we are talking $4000 due to fact that either me or one of my sisters needed to accompany her. We tried to get some type of a discount rate. Nothing. The company said, "If he dies, we can give you a bereavement rate of $900, but we need proof of death." Needless to say, she was beside herself.
These damned companies will give you a reduced rate for a funeral, but they won't give you a reduced rate for someone to see a parent who is dying and is lucky to live several days. Needless to say, I got online and search vigantly. We found some tickets for $568 on Delta Airlines, which were 25% of what they wanted. And with more searching online I actually brought the tickets down to half that (543.90 for two roundtrips from American Airlines). The flights went off without a hitch too. We got tickets the Thursday before labor day and they were able to make it to see him before he died.
Shame on big airlines for jacking up the prices for people who need last minute flights when the airlines have seats available, so many that they are obviously willing to let go of them at nearly a 10th of what they originally asked when we called them directly.
For shame Delta Airlines and all you other airlines who jack up prices over the phone just because you can when you have them available in other online at a reduced rate.
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