Hi, @michelledbatson. My name is Tiffany and I'm on our Community Outreach team here at Southwest Airlines. I first wanted to say we are so sorry to hear about Ernie and wanted to thank him for his years of service as well as thank you for thinking of Southwest.
From a charitable standpoint, Southwest provides direct support to various qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, particularly those that fall within our current areas of strategic focus: Families Facing Serious Illness, Military and their Families, Disaster Preparedness and Response, Community Resiliency and the Environment. Unfortunately, Southwest can't support individuals seeking assistance for personal travel, but wanted to guide you towards our Medical Transportation Grant Program.
Through the Southwest Airlines Medical Transportation Grant Program (MTGP) we provide complimentary, roundtrip tickets to nonprofit hospitals and medical transportation organizations. Southwest allows participating nonprofit hospitals and medical transportation nonprofit organizations the freedom to determine how to distribute the tickets to patients and/or caregivers.
You mentioned he will be receiving treatment in Chicago and the following hospitals are part of MTGP.
Loyola University Medical Center (Chicago, IL)
University of Chicago Medicine (Chicago, IL)
University of Illinois Hospital and Health Science Systems (Chicago, IL)
Rush University Medical Center (Chicago, IL)
Best of luck to you and Ernie, our hearts are with you both!
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