Husband marooned in UK on bereavement ticket

Ideas from insiders? Husband now stuck in UK. What's the point of an open bereavement ticket if you can't actually use it?

Husband went from US to UK to see sick mother at end of May using my Flying Club miles. Virgin Atlantic graciously converted his ticket to an open ticket based on bereavement when we notified them of her death. But he still has to take care of things for 92 year old father. and his current flight date of July 9 doesn't allow enough time to deal with social services etc. But because it's summer, the next date when rewards can be used is August 13, which is too late. Can't afford to upgrade either in money or miles. How do we break this log-jam? Any suggestions?

J

Where would he want to fly back to? Sorry to ask but you've only just registered and there is no information on your location in your profile.

Regards
R3DV

New York (preferably Newark but not fussy). Not changing anything about route.

[Neil]

All I can suggest is checking with VS on a daily basis, as reward seats are often released only 2/3 before the actual flight, so whilst there might not be anything now, all of a sudden some could appear.

Neil

We have exactly the same problem with a normal ticket at busy times even when people are prepared to pay A LOT to get back earlier. If the plane is full, the plane is full.
VS have broken the ticket rules for your husband by making this a flexible ticket but they can't magic up seats if there are none. They have to make profit first but where they can do something to help them in a time of trouble they will.

I must echo the above. Or if the situation is really desperate then if your husband were to go to the airport and stand by for every flight. The airport have the maximum flexibility to be able to put bums on seats so if there are a lot of no-shows then he may get lucky. A lot of it is also down to the member of staff that is on duty as this is at their discretion and they have to put together a business case to their managers.

Hello J

I don't think there is much light on the horizon for you. Not only is there no reward availability into JFK, but there is none any east coast destination. As Neil says, you can keep checking - inventory can be released by revenue management up until a few days before but only they can do it based on factors that us mere mortals sometimes can't fathom.

You could ask if they might find you a return seat on Continental, but even if there is availablity I suspect it would be more miles than you paid (guessing you booked one of the reward seat sale fares @29,000 miles return).

If you look for a paid fare now that will be expensive, and one ways are generally the same price as a return. It's a bit of a long shot, as your husbands stay has been prolonged rather than curtailed by bereavement - but is there anything in your travel insurance that would help?

Regards
R3DV

Thanks to eejp1007 and Neil for the insights. I obviously understand that VS, much as I love them, have a business to run and giving away revenue is not something they can reasonably be expected to do. A full flight is a full flight, but I wasn't told that.

RedVee: Insurance an interesting angle. Will look into that, too.

Thanks.