8 Best Charities that Help with Travel Expenses | Full List
With a range of $75 to $300, an individual can travel within the United States. Still, since several medical treatments are outside of the United States as per the families’ choices, the travel cost and other expenses can multiply thrice the domestic flights.
Along with the treatment cost, paying additional thousand dollars for travel becomes unaffordable. More than 80% of children require immediate and unforeseen medical treatment; in times like these, rushing around for flight money only puts their health at risk. The financial burden never seems to subsidize, hence multiple charities have started providing the free air transportation.
While some charities require a few days in advance for the preparations, the rest pick up children or adults from nearby airports to their homes and fly them out to their respective medical centers.
Here are 8 Best Charities that Help with Travel Expenses:
1. Children’s Flight of Hope
CFOH was incorporated in 1991 to offer air transportation to children in need of special medical care. They reserve commercial airline tickets for the children and one adult companion. In extreme situations, their resources enable them to provide private flights as well. With several strong partnerships like American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and AeroAngel, their mission has reached new heights.
Every year they are being able to fly 1300 children across the world for their treatment. As for their fundraising events, they host an annual CFOH Golf Classic in physical and virtual modes. This raises up to $850,000 donations.
The crisp information and steps for the application process on their website put the parents at ease. Charity Navigator rates them 100% for their finance structure.
2. Angel Flight Northeast
They aim to break down the barrier between expensive flights and access to medical care. Since 26 years and counting, over 450 volunteer pilots, ground crew, and airline partners have impacted 3,000 patients and provided them with the care needed.
For requesting a flight, certain topics need to be covered and accepted by the charity before flying patients out. To provide the best care, they need at least 5 working days in advance to prepare and handle critical requests.
Absolutely free transportation in times of need has helped not only family members but also major medical centers and charity trusts. They were awarded Platinum Transparency by GuideStar in 2021, while Charity Navigator rates them a 4-star nonprofit.
3. Air Charity Network
ACN provides free air transportation to healthcare facilities at distant ground levels. Apart from serving patients, they also help with organ transplants, clinical trials, chemotherapy, victims of abuse who seek relocation, and many other issues.
With well-listed participation programs they encourage more volunteers for a specialised area of work.
4. Mercy Medical Angels
They were established to overcome hurdles relating to air and ground transport lines. With 48 years of experience, MMA has provided 250,000 medical trips for low-income families and veterans nationwide.
Providing this charity with unused flier miles, donations and volunteers means more to them than they express. They believe that each gift can restore hope among the patients. By filling out the form provided on their website, on approval, they transfer the patients to the flight fulfilling all the necessary requirements and keeping a medical team on board.
For ground transportation, patients are assisted with gas cards or bus tickets for local treatment or a distance of more than 50 miles. While GuideStar gives them a Platinum Transparency token, Charity Navigator rates them 100% for their financial tuning.
5. Miracle Flights
Having hit a milestone of 150,000th flight, they are striving since 1985. Miracle Flights is a national charity that provides thousands of commercial flights for families across all states. They host annual events for better fundraising and worldwide partnerships to further assist their frequent travels.
14 days before departure, they verify the medical documents and treatments and the suitability of the financial situation. Post this; the qualifying families are allowed 2 parents or legal guardians in flight. Apart from this, they provide a special friend for the little ones. therapy dogs or service dogs are allowed on flights to support the patients in their journey.
Along with a Silver Transparency seal from GuideStar they were also mentioned in the Forbes Nonprofit Council of 2021.
6. Patient Air Lift Services SkyHope
They have a multipurpose mission of connecting children with doctors by providing free flights, a wounded veteran with service dogs, and launching new programs for effectively curing certain medical illnesses.
With over 10 years of impact, they have achieved assisting with 27,000 free flights with 560 volunteer pilots. Once the patients arrange for local ground transportation, the charity takes 0ver all the air expenses for international or domestic flights. There is no limitation on the number of flights needed after an application is deemed eligible.
Teaming up with Amazon, any purchase made on Amazon Smile will donate 0.5% for patient care. GuideStar gives them a gold seal of transparency.
7. Luke’s Wings
They recognized the very deep hole of being unable to be with your loved ones in times of medical need due to the flight expenses. Luke’s Wings was established to solve this issue, provide flights to families, and help them connect with their loved ones in hospitals.
Since 2012, they have acquired their position among the 15 charities partnered with Delta SkyWish to incorporate military families in need further. By providing free airfare to the wounded, ill and injured members, they take off the mental and physical load of the financial crisis.
With multiple programs they ensure the smooth functioning within their team and a safe travel accommodation for their patients. By answering a certain set of questions on their website, there is a chance to speed up the application process easily. GuideStar proudly tokens them the Gold Transparency Seal for the year 2021.
8. Air Care Alliance
A volunteer encouragement motive drives them to create a national network of pilots to deliver impactful services for patients. For three decades, they have protected their mission of supporting public benefit by flying through mutual respect and healthy communication to maximize output levels.
With free-of-cost flights and no limit on the number requested, medically stabilized passengers are barded with their parents or guardians to reach their destination safely. Since they are private planes, the passengers can be picked up from small airports nearby their homes regardless of the urban-rural segmentation.
Final Thoughts
Stepping forward without any wants is considered bravery today. It is only because of the volunteer pilots that the charities can function without any worry. Moreover, the educational program’s training can help a pilot gain even more expertise in his field.
These acts of encouragement and selfless support have gained great love and respect from patients and their families worldwide. Each flight departed imparts hope, goodwill, and regard for the pilots and support charities.
