How much does body repatriation cost from the UK

Every price on this page is an estimate. Repatriation costs depend on the destination, the route and the paperwork the two countries require, and no company can honestly give you a fixed figure before it knows your case. What we can give you is the range, what decides where in it you fall, and the promise that the written quote you receive from us is the figure on the invoice.

The estimated bands, by destination

Across everything we arrange the typical figure is around £4,500, and the top of the range, for a long-haul flight with connections and a country with unusual document requirements, is about £10,000. Each country’s page in our repatriation directory carries its own estimate, and what a repatriation costs gives you the band for any destination in one step.

What moves the figure

Three things, in order of size.

The transport. Road is cheaper than air for anywhere it can reach, which is why the European bands start where they do. Air is priced by the airline as cargo, by weight and by route, and a flight with a connection costs more than a direct one because the coffin is handled twice. By road or by air explains how the choice is made.

The coffin and the preparation. Most countries require embalming and a sealed coffin for a body crossing their border, and air transport requires a coffin prepared for it. A standard repatriation coffin is included in our figure. A family that wants a particular coffin for the funeral at home can have it, and that is the one line on a quote that can add more than a thousand pounds.

The documents. Every destination needs a death certificate, and most need it translated and legalised with an apostille from the Foreign Office. Some consulates in London charge for their own certificate. These are small individually and add up, and they are where a cheap quote hides its gaps.

What the figure covers

Our estimate includes collecting your loved one from the hospital or home, their care at our chapel of rest, the embalming and the sealed coffin, the death certificate and its legalisation, the notice to the coroner, the consular documents, the transport to the destination and the handover to the receiving funeral director. What a repatriation fee covers, and what it doesn’t goes through the list line by line, including the things at the destination that are the receiving funeral director’s to charge.

What a written quote should contain

Ask any company, including us, for a quote that names every item above, states whether the coffin is included, names the receiving funeral director at the destination and says what that home charges, and says in one line what is not included. If a quote is a single figure with no list, ask for the list. If a company will not itemise, that is your answer about the company.

Who pays

The family, unless something steps in: a travel insurance policy with repatriation cover, an employer’s policy for a death at work, or the estate once there is money in it. Who pays for a repatriation, and how to keep the cost down goes through each, and does travel insurance cover repatriation is the guide to read with the policy open. The Funeral Expenses Payment does not cover a repatriation.

The one thing that is not an estimate

The figure on the written quote. Once we know the destination, the route and the documents, the price we put in writing is the price you pay, and the two invoices a family sometimes receives from other companies, one before and one after, do not happen with us.

The figure sits inside the whole process, and repatriation, step by step shows where each part of it is spent.

If you are weighing two firms as well as two figures, the repatriation comparison page puts their Trustpilot scores beside ours and lists what any written quote should cover.