On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 23:44:30 -0600, Sontalisa
wrote:


But the airlines do have what
they call "compassion fares" and they do often waive change fees.


When my father-in-law died in 2000, my wife was already there and our
daughter and I had to fly down in a couple of hours. When I called
Delta, the compassionate fare was almost double the regular last
minute fare. The only advantage would have been that it would have
been an open return. We didn't need that since tentative plans had
been made and we knew when we we'd return. Delta did give my wife a
really hard time about changing her return flight. They tried to
charge her more than what was advertised on the web for a one way fare
plus the penalty. Eventually I was able to get it worked out but it
was an unneeded hassle at a difficult time.