Travel Agency Made A Mistake Booking Our Flights And Cost My Family $15,000

Location: Nebraska
My family went on a week-long trip to Ireland and Scotland in August which we booked through an independent travel agent in Nebraska who is contracted with the agency Europe Express which is based in Washington state. The travel to and around Ireland and Scotland all went smoothly, but we ran into issues getting home.

Europe Express purchased our return flight tickets through KLM. We were given our tickets as Virgin Atlantic ticket numbers with instructions to check in at the Delta desk. The Delta check-in people could not get us our boarding passes because of some coding issue where our ticket numbers were all in the Virgin Atlantic numbers, and Delta told us the travel agency or KLM is responsible for forwarding the correct info in the coding that the Delta desk could use. After calling the travel agency, they refused to take responsibility and insisted it was a problem with Delta's/KLM’s systems.

After several hours of calling various support lines, neither Delta nor the travel agency took responsibility. We were told by both the travel agency and by Delta that our best bet would be to book our own replacement tickets and get reimbursed when they figured out who was at fault. The airline tickets alone cost over $15,000 for our party of six people. By the time we were told to buy our own tickets, all flights from Edinburgh back to the US had left for the day, so we also had other bills from the delay (extra night of staying in a hotel, extra day of kenneling pets back home, airport parking, meals, etc.).

When we eventually got back, we contacted the travel agency to follow up on any progress. Europe Express said it would take up to 30 days to resolve the issue. The 30 day mark was last week, at which point Europe Express told us that it was KLM who screwed up, and they were expecting KLM to send Europe Express a refund, and we would be reimbursed after KLM sent that money to Europe Express.

Europe Express has since gone silent and is not returning any emails or offering any updates when we call. Our travel agent is also unable to get any update from them. Our travel agent helped us get traveler's insurance before the trip, but the insurance company has denied our claim for this situation.

The $15,000+ is still on our credit cards and accruing interest. We are reluctant to threaten a lawsuit, since we expect we'll be forced to communicate through lawyers once we even mention it. But we're getting to the point where I don't know if we have any other choice. Even if there was an error on KLM's end, I would still think Europe Express owes us our money back since they failed to deliver the services we paid for. It's not our fault that they went through a faulty third party.

At what point should we take this to court? Is it reasonable to file a claim against Europe Express when it might have been another party responsible for the mistake? Any advice is welcome.

EDIT: thanks for the responses. I have a few points of clarification (And for context, I’m not the one who booked anything or the one who is documenting all of this for a potential lawsuit, I’m just the family redditor. So… sorry for the inconsistencies)

1- We were never prompted for online check-in in the Delta app. We checked in at the desk on all preceding flights with no issues. We arrived at the Edinburgh airport three hours before the flight was scheduled to board. There was almost no line at the check in desk, so we were first told there were issues around 6:15 am for a 9:00 am flight, and no one could was able to give us answers that entire DAY, let alone in the nearly three hours of spare time we gave ourselves.

2- Two members of our party DID go to the KLM desk, just not me. The service reps there were unhelpful. I’m not sure exactly why but someone in the party has the bullet points from that particular conversation

3- The travel agent was asleep at home, because they are based in Nebraska so it was after midnight by the time we realized we needed help. The emergency number they left us to call was a support line with Europe Express.

4- Now that I know how KLM fits into the picture better, I wonder if they told us to check in at the Delta desk, and KLM translated our tickets to Virgin info when it should’ve been Delta info. I think that makes more sense given the mumbo jumbo the Delta service reps were throwing at us, but again I’m not the expert on how everything ties together.

5- Will be reviewing the travel insurance document. My limited understanding is that booking errors on the agency or airline’s fault is not covered but will be double checking.

6- I am aware that the travel agent SHOULD have professional E&O insurance. I don’t know if they do, and I don’t know if it would be covered if they did their part of the job correctly. We are trying to keep things amicable with the agent since they are the only contact who actually answers our calls.

7- If we were 100% sure about who to blame, this would be much easier. Thanks to the advice about mentioning the “chain of blame” in a potential lawsuit, which will probably have to include the agent as well