Need to get an airline ticket NOW! ?

Question

My 85 year old grandma was supposed to have hip surgery tomorrow am. She began to take a turn for the worst yesterday. She has a fever, her kidney's are failing, and she is unresponsive. The doc said she is not God but it looks like we need to prepare for the worst. She does not think she will survive the night much less the surgery.

What is the best way to get a reasonable air fare under these circumstances? Need to get there ASAP. Closest regional airport FSD, Sioux Falls, SD. I ned to get to RDU, Raleigh, NC.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

United Airlines seems to have service to RDU via Chicago. You can go online on www.united.com to shop for ticket fare. You can also try with Northwest Airlines. Depending on when you want to return, you are looking at a ticket fare of about USD1280 incl tax. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Call the airline direct and ask for a 'bereavment fare'.  Not all have them and availability and rules vary from carrier to carrier.  You may need to request documentation from the hospital.

Another option is to check with a local travel agent.  They have access to special fare classes in their GDS that online booking systems do not have.

Check carefully because they are not always the best fares available (but right now the best fare I find for travel tommorrow is about $1200.

Also check priceline which offers packages sometimes with odd rules, like hotel and airfare for less than airfare, so you pay that and just dont check in the hotel.

Some NWA info at least:

Northwest Airlines Domestic Medical/Bereavement Fare Policy

New Medical/Bereavement Reservation and Ticketing Process

(June 26, 2006) In an effort to provide consistency in our domestic and international medical and bereavement assistance programs, all medical and bereavement travel requests will be handled by Northwest/KLM Reservations effective July 1. Travel agents will no longer be able to book and ticket medical and bereavement reservations.

Northwest does not provide a medical fare for international travel.

Effective December 13, 2005, Northwest Airlines will require a WorldPerks number in a reservation for the customer to be eligible for discounted one way and roundtrip emergency fares for travel within the 50 U.S. and Canada when travel is due to the hospitalization or death of an immediate family member.  Immediate family members are defined as spouse, domestic partners, children (including adopted children), parent, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild (any step/adopted/half/in-law versions), great-grandparent, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle.

Membership in any other frequent flyer program will not qualify customers for a domestic medical/bereavement fare.