Airlines Fail Again: Bereavement Fares
In case you didn’t notice, we here at Pride and Opinions (by which I mean, me) took a couple of days off for the holiday - I hope that everyone had a good time, and is rested up for the new year up ahead.
I’ve been trying to catch up with blogs I might have liked to read earlier but hadn’t, and one handy feature has been the Queercents end of the year blogger round up - instead of posting new content for now, they’re letting their bloggers take a break and are posting a best-of for all their writers. I didn’t know they had so many, so it has been nice to try to catch up with a year’s worth of information.
So far, the note that’s caught my eye is Paula’s article about Bereavement Fares, which notes that at least a few airlines (Continental) don’t offer them to GLBT families, and most don’t offer them at all to anyone anymore. This is in line with my personal experience - last year, my grandfather died while I was at a debate tournament in Texas (I lived in upstate New York at the time) and the thing I learned about bereavement fares was that they were basically more expensive than just buying another plane ticket, especially if you already had a plane ticket that you need to change. But the fact that the limited fares that do exist don’t always extend to GLBT partners is super frustrating, especially since all of Paula’s comments about adding insult to injury are fundamentally correct - can you imagine calling the airline because your domestic partner’s father died and being told you aren’t eligible? Seriously.
GLBT, airlines, Continental, bereavement fares
GLBT, airlines, Continental, bereavement fares
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