# Grievance rate/discount



## PerRock (Feb 15, 2008)

I recently (yesterday) had a death in the family and I am hoping on taking Amtrak out to the funeral. I was wondering if Amtrak has a grievance discount/rate or not. I tried talking to an agent but she was very unclear about if I was getting a discount or not (i do not believe the price she quoted me was discounted at all) Does anyone know a promo code that would get me said discount or even what it would be (I can calculate it off myself, i got a TI 89 that needs to be used now and then)

peter

Edit: I found out what the rate is. its 25% off. Thanks to google (and the right terminology...)


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## WhoozOn1st (Feb 15, 2008)

Please accept my sincere condolences for your loss, PerRock.

If there is a discount, it might be referred to as a bereavement discount or rate. I think the airlines have bereavement fares. Your topic title made me think it was about getting a break for poor service, or somehow union-related.

Oh good, you found it.


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## PerRock (Feb 15, 2008)

Yes there is. Ya I couldn't think of the proper term while I was talking with AMTK and posting here. thank to the NWA rep I got the proper term. The rate is %25 off. I'm not sure if there are any restrictions (or how it effects my AGR point purchase)

peter


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## had8ley (Feb 15, 2008)

WhoozOn1st999 said:


> Please accept my sincere condolences for your loss, PerRock.
> If there is a discount, it might be referred to as a bereavement discount or rate. I think the airlines have bereavement fares. Your topic title made me think it was about getting a break for poor service, or somehow union-related.
> 
> Oh good, you found it.


Patrick;

Believe it or not some of the airlines have eliminated the bereavement fares with the excuse, "Our fares are low enough already." Call around if you get the chance and see.


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## Neil_M (Feb 15, 2008)

had8ley said:


> Believe it or not some of the airlines have eliminated the bereavement fares with the excuse, "Our fares are low enough already."


Probably not worth the bother to try and police it more like, how do you prove that someone on the other side of the country has died? And if they offer a discount for that then why not someone dying or very ill?


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## PerRock (Feb 15, 2008)

had8ley said:


> Patrick;Believe it or not some of the airlines have eliminated the bereavement fares with the excuse, "Our fares are low enough already." Call around if you get the chance and see.


So far I have discovered that Southwest and Delta do not have bereavement rates.



> Probably not worth the bother to try and police it more like, how do you prove that someone on the other side of the country has died? And if they offer a discount for that then why not someone dying or very ill?


Most airlines require you to book X many days ahead (no more no less). American Air requires the name of either the Doctor, Hospital, or Funeral Home of the patient. Which the contact to check before giving you the rate.

Last night I spent a good while calling up most of the major airlines in the area as well as Amtrak looking for the best rate. And Amtrak by far was the cheapest (by about $100)

peter


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## Guest (Feb 15, 2008)

I believe that with airlines, and probably Amtrak, too, that the bereavement fares were/are a discount off the regular undiscounted/highest coach fares. Many times on the airlines and Amtrak, you probably would be able to find a lower available fare that would make it cheaper than taking a dscount off the full fare.


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## Cascadia (Feb 15, 2008)

Neil_M said:


> had8ley said:
> 
> 
> > Believe it or not some of the airlines have eliminated the bereavement fares with the excuse, "Our fares are low enough already."
> ...


I was with a friend of mine once while he was negotiating with NWA for a bereavement rate flight, he had to get a copy of the death certificate faxed to the airline. All these calls and trying to find out who to talk to, who had what, where to send it, while he was trying to pack and get out of town all within hours of learning of his father's sudden death. He did get it all done but I was glad I could be there for moral support.


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## had8ley (Feb 15, 2008)

Cascadia said:


> Neil_M said:
> 
> 
> > had8ley said:
> ...


Your friend was very lucky. Some states take weeks to issue a death certificate.Unfortunately, I'm in one of them. My sister died in San Diego and we wound up having to pay full coach fares without a discount because it was the day after Mardi Gras.


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## Green Maned Lion (Feb 15, 2008)

What does Amtrak ask for as proof?

My sincerest condonlences, Peter.


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## PerRock (Feb 15, 2008)

Ok here is the deal;

You must:

Provide documentation, this may be a newspaper article, letter from doc/funeral dir/minister/etc or death cert.

Name of dead

relation to you

contact info for the funeral home

you get 25% off and you must buy the tix with in 7days of the funeral.


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## Green Maned Lion (Feb 15, 2008)

Not sure I get that last part. In Judaism, the body is buried within a day or two. How would it work in that instance? (Obviously, I'm not taking Amtrak to a Jewish funeral in California. It wouldn't work...)


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## PerRock (Feb 15, 2008)

ummm well good question. I'm not sure if its 7days from the trip, or 7 days from the funeral....

peter


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## George Harris (Feb 15, 2008)

PerRock said:


> you get 25% off and you must buy the tix with in 7days of the funeral.


Hopefully, that is within 7 days or less not no less than 7 days, since usually for almost everybody funerals are held within less than 7 days of death unless something strange is going on and the medical examiner refuses to release the body.

Had a friend who's brother died while she was outside the country. Airline (one of the US ones) says the return part of your ticket can't be used early, so had to buy a full fare one way back to the US, and was left with an unusable paid for return on the original ticket.


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## sechs (Feb 16, 2008)

I'm sure that "within seven days" means no more than seven days in advance.

They don't want folks "planning" funerals too far in advance.


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## tbird (Feb 16, 2008)

I don't believe Amtrak offers any bereavement discounts what so ever. In early December, we were on one of the Silver Service trains heading from NYP to HOL to go on a cruise.

On the second day of our trip we received notice that my father in law had passed away. We had to return home on the next train. It cost us an extra $65 to exchange our bedroom tickets for a roomette for that return.

Thinking back, we should have paid for the roomette, and saved the bedroom for another trip. We booked a year in advance and had great fares.


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## sechs (Feb 16, 2008)

First, PerRock described the current discount. So it exists.

Second, your case is different in that you wanted to change an existing itinerary, not buy a new one.


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## AlanB (Feb 16, 2008)

sechs said:


> tbird said:
> 
> 
> > I don't believe Amtrak offers any bereavement discounts what so ever. In early December, we were on one of the Silver Service trains heading from NYP to HOL to go on a cruise.
> ...


Also I believe that the bereavement discount only applies to coach seats, it doesn't help at all for sleeper pricing.

So you got hurt Tbird by the fact that you had made the original reservation way back when rooms were in the low bucket, and most likely got the roomette at the high bucket price. Personally I do think that it would have been good of Amtrak to reticket you at the low bucket rate, but the bereavement discount wouldn't have helped you all that much overall since again, it wouldn't have applied to the room only the railfare and one already gets the lowest railfare when booking a sleeper.


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