Airline Bereavement Policies: Who Still Offers Flexibility

The short version

Discounted bereavement fares are mostly gone. Delta and Air Canada still offer bereavement consideration, usually flexibility on changes rather than a lower price. United, American, Southwest, Alaska, and JetBlue no longer offer a bereavement program.

What airlines ask for

The name of the deceased, your relationship, and the name and phone number of the funeral home, hospital, or hospice. Some airlines want the request made by phone before ticketing.

The practical alternative

Buy a standard economy fare, not basic economy. On US carriers it can be changed without a fee, so the return can move once arrangements are known. Ask the agent to compare same-day fares on every carrier; the cheapest option is often on an airline with no bereavement program at all.

Why the flexible fare usually beats a bereavement rate

When bereavement fares were common they were a modest discount off a full-flexibility ticket, not off the cheapest fare of the day. Today a last-minute standard economy fare is frequently lower than what a bereavement rate would have been, and it already carries the flexibility that matters most: on the major US carriers, standard economy changes without a change fee, so you pay only any difference in fare when the return date moves. That is the real need in bereavement travel — an open-ended return — and a changeable standard fare delivers it whether or not the airline has a program. Basic economy is the one to avoid, because it usually cannot be changed at all.

Leave the return open if you can

Arrangements often are not settled when you book, so the safest structure is a changeable outbound with a placeholder return you can move once the timeline is known, rather than a guessed date on a nonrefundable ticket. If you are already away from home when you get the news, the same logic applies to changing your existing return — a standard fare bends, a basic one does not. Have the deceased's name, your relationship, and the funeral home or hospital's name and number ready when you call, since a carrier still offering consideration will ask for them, sometimes before ticketing.

Get help

Call (708) 866-8751. Tell the agent it is bereavement travel; they will ask each carrier on the route about flexibility and book the fastest reasonable itinerary.

• Policies reviewed September 2026; airlines change these without notice.