Which airlines offer compassionate fares and are they worth it?

[AFF Editor]

Canonical URL

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/compassionate-airfares/

In another recent AFF article, there were some comments asking about compassionate airfares and which airlines offer them.

We checked with the major Australian airlines (and some overseas ones) about what's available - or in many cases, not available - and put together this guide to them:

Compassionate Airfares: Barely Worth the Hassle

Airlines including Qantas and Air New Zealand offer discounted compassionate or bereavement airfares for people who need to travel urgently due to a family member's medical emergency or funeral. But the savings might not be worth it.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[Quickstatus]

Not worth the hassle

 

[Berlin]

Quite sad but also good to know- 10% off a Qantas fare close to departure is indeed not worth the hassle.

I’ve read this with great interest as both my parents over in Germany are over the age of 80 now. As much as I wished it never happened, I know very well that it is bound to happen some day. I’ve already asked them jokingly a few years ago to please not die during Summer holidays or Christmas season

 

[justinbrett]

These were probably more relevant back in the day with much higher fares and many more restrictions (such as the Sat night stay).

Not a lot of margin in domestic economy tickets to work with - and they have to be strict with documentation because in 2025 there’s a lot of people who would have no qualms exploiting this.

 

[kilavuz]

In another recent AFF article, there were some comments asking about compassionate airfares and which airlines offer them.

We checked with the major Australian airlines (and some overseas ones) about what's available - or in many cases, not available - and put together this guide to them:

Compassionate Airfares: Barely Worth the Hassle

Airlines including Qantas and Air New Zealand offer discounted compassionate or bereavement airfares for people who need to travel urgently due to a family member's medical emergency or funeral. But the savings might not be worth it.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

Qantas? NOT a chance! I bought FF ticket for i and my daughter about 3 months earlier, then received a message that my father was unwell and I should change my ticket to two days earlier to see him alive, and Qantas asked for $8345 for one-way economy ticket change (SYD-LHW-IST) for my booking! My travel agent found ways to bring this down to about 50% off, only my ticket. Then regular cattle class return ticket was about $1500, business under $6000 (20 years ago)
Dad died within hours of my arrival, my daughter came next day and could not see her grandpa. And when I contacted Qantas on my return, I was explained that it is a matter of "supply & demand" (second week of December would not be a big demand date for either LHW or IST), the operator said she felt sorry, her manager repeated exactly the same, and I could not reach then CEO bowtie man in any way or form, so Qantas is compassionate? Pull the other leg

 

[Jurahn]

Back in 2016 when I lived in Perth, I received a phone call one afternoon in mid July from my brother saying Mum had suffered a massive stroke and wasn't expected to survive. She was in a hospital on the NSW South Coast, so I needed to fly to either Sydney or Canberra the next day and drive down. The cost to fly the next day (Sunday) was horrendously expensive, but of course I needed to get over there so contacted both VA and QF but neither offered compassionate fares. Mum died about 3 hours after I got there.

 

[CanadaGirl]

I too received a phone call late one evening from Canada with my brother saying the nurses had just told him mom's death was imminent. I immediately booked a flight home. Did not make it sadly. Then I followed ALL the rules of Air Canada, complete with many many follow ups with them and nothing. Not even a courtesy of a reply. SMH traveller section suggested contacting the CEO, but no response there either. Appalling behaviour especially if someone is already in great stress of dealing with losing a loved one.

 

[Jama]

It’s more like who doesn’t take advantage of your loss than who helps you out.
I had to fly for the death of a parent with my wife and daughter on very short notice and it cost about $3000 for flights we would pay about $600 for ordinarily.
This has been the case twice in the last 2 years.

 

[CanadaGirl]

Yes, my flight was over $6000 for a normal $2000 one....

 

[dajop]

TBH, the best way to access last minute fares when in need for urgent compassionate travel (internationally anyway) is to post here and tap into the AFF brains trust. I do recall several such posts over the years. Sometimes it’s about speed and sometimes about price.

Unfortunately not so useful for domestic travel, where it is what it is as options are of course more or less limited the 3 carriers.

 

[AuSammy]

Not a death but my daughter was suddenly admitted to hospital a few years back and had to cancel a planned JQd return trip. She had non refundable fares on JQ.

I called the call centre and asked what options there were in the feint hope they would allow a change of dates or waive the change fee.

To my surprise, “sorry to hear of her illness, I’ll organise an immediate refund of both tickets”.

 

[LindyA]

My 90 year old mother had to cancel a flight as her doctor deemed her unfit to fly. QANTAS agreed to refund the cost of her flight however the process was a nightmare. The call centre told me to go to the website and the website said to ring the call centre! When I rang for a second time, I was told to choose a different option on the website which instructed me to upload the medical certificate. The medical certificate file was too large so I took a photo of it and once again the file was too large. My third attempt to ring finally resulted in the agent processing the refund without the certificate!

 

[RegularTraveller]

Sadly I had to request this just recently from Qantas. I am a Platinum QFF, not that should matter, and Qantas offered me no discount at all. The call centre was even going to charge me the fee for booking through them if I went that way. Disgustingly I was forced to pay $767.89 for a one way economy flight from MEL to OOL.

 

[jase05]

VA cops a bit of stick and yes I’ve had issues with them but was grateful for their help when my wife’s mother became critically ill whilst we were in the Caribbean a few months ago.
We had award flights SFO-BNE on UA originally booked in J with Velocity points and when I called Virgin to cancel the flights and mentioned how we needed to get home ASAP the agent couldn’t find any UA award seats but found 2x J seats on QR BOS-DOH-ADL that I couldn’t see on my searches. She managed to book them there and then. She passed whilst we were on the flight home but at least we got home to her family

 

[pauly7]

Sadly I had to request this just recently from Qantas. I am a Platinum QFF, not that should matter, and Qantas offered me no discount at all. The call centre was even going to charge me the fee for booking through them if I went that way. Disgustingly I was forced to pay $767.89 for a one way economy flight from MEL to OOL.

Wow sounds like you encountered an untrained agent, so sorry to hear and sorry for your loss.

I also sadly had to use this recently and QF could not have been more helpful, because we were travelling last minute to NZ on school hols (almost no seats) the flights were $$$ so the 10% was welcomed. No fees charged for manual bookings. The agent also noted any changes would be free if the dates had to move and also marked the flights meaning any cancelations or reschedules we would be top of the list to be prioritised to make our destination on time.