Funeral Travel

It's tough. It's last minute. No one plans their death around Southwest Airlines' latest sale. (although, honestly, I'll try when my time comes...I do care about all of you, and if anyone should do it, it would be me)

Friday January 16...Uncle Rick contacts me that a sad death has occurred and he needs to get from Sante Fe, NM to Rochester NY. He's thinking of flying Monday, perhaps coming back Thursday, yet not knowing when the exact funeral will be. Okay, I have the flu, but I'm up for this challenge, as it doesn't involve driving or being around others who could get infected. Besides, Uncle Rick's voice is shaking, he's really upset, and I would genuinely like to help him not spend an arm and a leg to get there. Immediately, I checked Travelocity and Expedia, and was alarmed to see that not only was he looking at over $1000 airfare, but he was going to have to travel 3 legs each way. Grueling! Awful! I hated that for him. What else could he do? I checked Orbitz. I looked on Southwest. Considered the options. Southwest only flies to Buffalo though, not Rochester, is that an option for Uncle Rick? Call Uncle Rick, and he knows he doesn't want to drive in the snow between the cities, but is there a shuttle? What I hear is that he's open to options, he'll consider alternatives, however Buffalo doesn't seem to be one of them this time. This is important! Alternatives could be other airports. Could be other dates. Could be all kinds of flexibility. My job was to discover what options he had. I also had to keep in mind that it's a tough winter, with tough weather in the North.

Other dates seemed to be the best idea to me. I played around with Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, coming back other days than Thursday...the only lower fare option that kept coming up was Saturday to Saturday. By now it's, oh...8:00 on Friday night. I'm wondering if Uncle Rick would consider leaving, at...oh, 6am from Albequerque Saturday morning? Cause that's the only time the airfare is going down. Call Uncle Rick. In the time it takes to reach him, that airfare is GONE on Expedia. Not available anymore anyway. Okay, fine...I'll try elsewhere. Meanwhile, other options show up but they involve Washington, DC, which is about to face the Obama Inauguration. Airfares are coming and going, literally by the minute. Scared, worried, I'm really wondering what else I can pull out here? Over $1000 for airfare and traveling three legs each way, is not, imo, an okay option...PERIOD. Yet, what else can I do? I fumble around the keyboard and internet, and stumble upon a Travelocity option that involves Uncle Rick hopping a plane the next day (Saturday) afternoon, on Northwest, via Minneapolis. Just two legs going. However, coming home any day other than the following Saturday presents an expensive challenge and 3-tier grueling challenge. The following Saturday has only one "low-fare" option, which is Rochester via US Airways to LaGuardia at 8:30am, arriving 10:05am, connecting with Delta 12:55 to Atlanta 3:35, then Delta 4:45 to Albequerque 6:27pm. Having experienced an airline terminal change in New York at LaGuardia before, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Switching from US Air to Delta, I wouldn't wish on anyone. However, I tried to reinact anything like this, with a similiar price on either US Air or Delta via their own websites, brought back those nasty over $1000 airfares. Stumped for any other options, I called Uncle Rick and told him my best suggestion was to leave the next afternoon, and proceed with the Travelocity plan which was $305.12 plus taxes and fees for a grand total of $379.49. Not a fee I'm particularly proud of, because I like bargain travel, however under the circumstances, to save him $600 or more, I consider a plus.
Since then, I have heard from Uncle Rick who said everything went off well. I'm glad to have been able to help him out. Let's face it, when we're dealing with a crisis, and emotional, that's when the travel industry could most take advantage of us, unless we keep a level head, and have the patience to pursue various options. Uncle Rick, being flexible like he was, meant I could help him get a better deal. I'm glad it all worked out.