It appears that you did not purchase travel insurance along with your
fare or you wouldn't have written your message in the first place. Next
time, buy travel insurance!

That being said, you can't expect the airline to believe every story
about a death in the family (even if its is true as I do not doubt in
your case) as that is one of the oldest scams done by passengers to get
out of paying for changes in their fares. But the airlines do have what
they call "compassion fares" and they do often waive change fees.
Again, on a major travel purchase, "opt in" on the travel insurance.

Hope you have better luck on future flights.

Santalisa.


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Sontalisa
I love to travel. Visit me at TRAVEL.com.