Cheapest way to get to south Florida- dad collapsed and in hospital !!!!!!!

scotdebs

My father has just been admitted to hospital in Florida ( he lives there) and I am looking for some hints or tips on how to get there as cheaply as possible ( no savings and credit cards pretty much maxed out) he has no one else over there as my step mum died some yrs ago am not sure exactly when I will need to go have spoken to hospital staff and they say it would be best to time it with when he gets out - but of course they can't cant say yet when that will be - he lives an hour away from Miami so Miami, west palm beach and Fort Lauderdale are the airports that I am trying to source cheap flights too - I have 16250 avio point with ba from work trips but don't think they are much use for where I am trying to go

Any advice really appreciated

vegasvisitor

BA fly London to Miami. Not sure where you need to fly from, but if it's Manchester or another large charter airport, could you possibly get a late deal on a flight to Orlando then travel down by car?

shaun_from_Africa

Why not give BA and Virgin a call and see if they can offer any special fares. (a few airlines do this in the USA and refer to them as bereavement fares).

American Airlines fly from Gatwick to Orlando (codeshare with BA) and they advertise this service in the US so they may well do the same in the UK.
http://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/bereavementFares.jsp


One other thing to bear in mind is that if you need an ESTA and you don't have one, it might be an idea to apply for this now so if you manage to get a short notice flight you won't have to worry about it.

richardw

Log in to your avios account and do a search to MIA, FLL and see if anything is available.

bcl999

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Why not give BA and Virgin a call and see if they can offer any special fares. (a few airlines do this in the USA and refer to them as bereavement fares).

You're a cheery soul. Shaun! I'm guessing you are a "glass half empty" person.

shaun_from_Africa

That's what the airlines in the US call them so that's the terminology I used in my post.

bcl999

richardw wrote: »

Log in to your avios account and do a search to MIA, FLL and see if anything is available.

Well, unlike you , I did exactly that for OP to save then some time amd there is bu**er all.

budgetflyer

It may be worth buying more avios and redeem for aer lingus flight. Taxes are lower. Then when across the pond, get a low cost down to Florida.
http://www.headforpoints.com/2012/12/20/saving-taxes-by-redeeming-avios-to-the-us-on-aer-lingus/
goes into more details on redeeming avios with aer lingus

Apparently Air Berlin too.
http://www.headforpoints.com/category/airberlin/

bcl999

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

That's what the airlines in the US call them so that's the terminology I used in my post.

Pedant!!!!

shaun_from_Africa

bcl999 wrote: »

Pedant!!!!

I suppose you're correct.
Maybe I should have used the full title of their special fares.

"Emergency or Bereavement Fares"

The OP's situation is an emergency so it certainly wouldn't do any harm trying AA or other airlines.

bcl999

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

I suppose you're correct.
Maybe I should have used the full title of their special fares.

"Emergency or Bereavement Fares"

The OP's situation is an emergency so it certainly wouldn't do any harm trying AA or other airlines.

Much better, Shaun :T