Jun. 8--HOW MUCH is a airplane ticket home to see an ailing relative or attend a funeral worth? For Wolf Gulger, it's worth at least $1,000.
For an airline, it could be worth the loss of a customer's business.
Airlines are keeping an eye on the bottom line and cutting amenities such as magazines and meals to save money. For some carriers, it also means an end to bereavement fares, discounted tickets for family members usually traveling at a moment's notice to visit terminally ill relatives or to attend a loved one's funeral.
For passengers, consumer loyalty can be made or broken during such times.
Gulger ate the price of a United Airlines ticket from Oklahoma City to Toronto when his 83-year-old mother died, and he was trying to get his wife from Oklahoma City to Toronto for the funeral. Anticipating his mother's death, he flew to Toronto to be at her side and bought a ticket for his wife for a later date. But Gulger said his mother died before his wife could use the ticket, and the airline refused to allow her to use it immediately.
"They said there were no flights available in the next three to five days," said Gulger, owner of Executive Search Services. "It was about two weeks before Christmas. I can appreciate that. But when you're in a situation where somebody is going to die, or has, you just need to be there."
Gulger eventually found a flight on American Airlines for about $400, about half the price of the flights he was quoted elsewhere.
"I typically fly American, but that re-enforced it," said Gulger, who has an office in Shawnee and in Toronto and makes the trip between the two cities frequently.
American Airlines is one of the few airlines that continues to offer bereavement discounts. Most airlines have discontinued bereavement discounts but have lowered same-day fares. Others simply are offering passengers less of a discount on emergency tickets.
Bereavement tickets booked with American Airlines must be purchased over the phone, and customers are charged $10 per reservation. The discounts can be as deep as 50 percent of a last-minute fare, said Tim Smith, spokesman for the Fort Worth-based airline.
Other airlines are adding a few more obstacles to getting the discounted air fare.
Northwest Airlines requires that passengers requesting discounts to travel to see an ailing relative or attend a funeral join the airline's WorldPerks program, a frequent flier program they join for free when the ticket is purchased.
"We added that to help prevent fraud," said Jennifer Bagdade, spokeswoman for Northwest Airlines. "That way, we have a history of working with that person, and we can see how often they are trying to use those discounts."
Bereavement fare discounts can vary in the market where the price of an airline ticket changes daily. Passengers should keep an eye on travel Web sites to find the lowest fare before requesting a discount, Bagdade said.
"Sometimes that's a better solution for their needs," she said.
Continental Airlines is so sure of this strategy that it stopped offering deep discounts on bereavement tickets this spring. In the past, the airline offered travelers up to 50 percent off the full fare for emergency fares. Now its policy is to offer a 10 percent discount on round-trip tickets that cost more than $1,000.
"Often the walk-up fare is far better than the 50 percent discount," said Sarah Anthony, spokeswoman for the Houston-based airline.
Delta Airline's decision to simplify its fares made bereavement fares unnecessary, an airline spokesman said. In 2005, the airline capped its walk-up fares at $499, Anthony Black said.
"This basically simplifies it and reduces the need for people to provide documentation of a death or illness," Black said.
Southwest Airlines does not offer bereavement fares and US Airways ended discounted emergency fares in February when it began its merger with discount airline America West.
