A Family Arrived at Edinburgh Airport With Tickets for Their Flight Home. Then No One Could Give Them Boarding Passes. Now They Have a $15,000 Problem

Imagine this: you’re from the US, you’ve just had a wonderful European vacation, and you’re finally heading home. You arrive at the airport with your flights booked and plenty of time before departure – only to discover that the airline can’t issue your boarding passes.

Then no one can tell you exactly what’s wrong or how to fix it.

For me, that would be a complete nightmare. I think many travelers would feel stressed, helpless and increasingly desperate as departure time gets closer and the answers become less clear.

A family from Nebraska recently found themselves in almost exactly this situation at Edinburgh Airport. They eventually made it home, but the way they did so created an entirely new problem.

More than a month later, they say they still don’t know exactly which company was responsible for what went wrong – or how they’re going to resolve a charge of more than $15,000 that resulted from it.

Here’s what happened.

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The Trip Had Gone Smoothly Until They Tried to Fly Home

The Reddit poster said most family members were traveling internationally for the first time. They booked their August trip through an independent travel agent in Nebraska, who worked with Europe Express.

Their travel around Ireland and Scotland reportedly went smoothly, but the return journey was more complicated.

According to the poster’s updated explanation, Europe Express purchased the return flights through KLM. The family received Virgin Atlantic ticket numbers, along with instructions telling them to check in at the Delta counter in Edinburgh.

When they reached that counter, the family says Delta employees couldn’t produce their boarding passes because of a problem with the ticket information.

“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.”

They Had Nearly Three Hours Before Their Flight – And Still Couldn’t Fix It

Several commenters questioned whether the family had tried to check in online beforehand or arrived with enough time to resolve the issue.

The OP later added more detail. They said the family wasn’t prompted to check in through the Delta app and had checked in at airport counters on their earlier flights without trouble.

Their Edinburgh flight was scheduled for 9 a.m. They reached the airport roughly three hours before departure and encountered very little line at the desk.

“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.”

The poster clarified that two people in the six-person group also went to the KLM desk, although the OP wasn’t personally part of that conversation. According to the update, they couldn’t resolve the issue there either.

The family’s Nebraska travel agent wasn’t available right away because of the time difference. It was after midnight back home, and the emergency number the travelers had been given connected them with Europe Express instead.

Then They Were Told to Buy New Tickets

After hours of calls to different support lines, the family says neither Delta nor the travel agency accepted responsibility.

Eventually, according to the Reddit post, they received the same practical advice: buy replacement flights and deal with reimbursement later.

“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.”

There were six travelers and the replacement airfare alone came to more than $15,000, and by the time they reached that point, getting on another flight that same day was no longer an option.

The family says the delay meant paying for an additional hotel night and meals, while expenses continued accumulating back in Nebraska as well, including another day of airport parking and an extra day of pet kenneling.

Several People Couldn’t Believe the $15,000 Price

The size of the replacement airfare quickly became another discussion in the comments.

One person asked whether the family had purchased first-class tickets, writing:

“Were there first class? 15 k is crazy even last minute.”

They weren’t.

The OP said the replacement journey was Edinburgh to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Omaha, bought only a day before departure.

“Not first class, none of our flights were. A one-way international ticket one day in advance cost about $2600.”

At roughly $2,600 each for six passengers, the total crossed $15,000.

For comparison, the poster said the family’s entire original trip had cost a little more than $5,000 per person – money they had spent considerable time saving.

Other travelers in the thread said the replacement fare didn’t surprise them as much. One commenter wrote that last-minute one-way tickets from Europe can become very expensive, while another said they had previously paid a similar amount for a last-minute economy seat from Amsterdam to Boston.

Redditors Kept Coming Back to the Same Question: Who Was Actually Supposed to Check Them In?

The airline arrangement generated the most disagreement in the thread.

One commenter asked which airline was actually operating the flight from Edinburgh, arguing that the operating carrier would normally be responsible for checking in a passenger with a valid ticket.

Another replied that an airline couldn’t check in a ticket that hadn’t been issued correctly.

A third commenter suspected there may have been a valid reservation but a problem with the underlying ticket itself:

“Yeah this sounds like some type of ticketing issue on the return. Reservation in place but ticket not valid.”

Another commenter questioned the instruction to use Delta at all:

“To make it worse they told them to check in with Delta on a KLM/Virgin itinerary. They just likely needed to check in with KLM since it was a code share ticket.”

But the OP pushed back on the idea that the family had simply gone to the wrong place. According to their documents, they were given Virgin Atlantic ticket numbers and told to check in with Delta.

The OP said Delta employees even tried to locate someone at KLM during the airport ordeal.

“The Delta service reps tried walking over there but told us there was no one at the station at the time. We also had very clearly stated on documents from the travel agency our VIRGIN ticket numbers with instructions to check in at the Delta desk.”

The OP’s later edit added that two relatives visited the KLM desk separately but didn’t get the problem resolved there.

Some Travelers Said the Airline Relationships Should Have Made This Easier

Other commenters focused on the relationship between Delta, KLM and Virgin Atlantic and said they had traveled on similar multi-airline bookings without running into this problem.

One person described buying a Delta itinerary to the UK that included a Virgin Atlantic flight home and said the boarding pass worked without difficulty.

Another traveler described checking in through KLM for a Delta flight in Amsterdam.

Those experiences led some commenters to suspect something more fundamental had gone wrong with the family’s ticketing, rather than this simply being a case of showing up at the wrong airline counter.

One reply put it more simply:

“Once you are at the airport, they scan your passport and find your booking. Even with a code share, any check in counter can at least direct you to the right counter. Unless there were no tickets issued.”

The poster repeatedly acknowledged that they weren’t an expert on the technical side of the booking. They later wrote that, after understanding more about KLM’s role, they wondered whether information had been translated into the wrong airline’s format somewhere in the process.

The Family Had Used a Travel Agent Because They Thought It Would Make Problems Easier to Solve

One commenter asked why anyone would still use a travel agent.

The poster’s answer explained why the situation frustrated the family.

“It was the first time most of us had ever traveled abroad and we thought a travel agent would make our lives easier in case something like this happened. Lesson learned.”

That prompted pushback from several people who felt the family hadn’t made a mistake by hiring a travel agent.

One commenter replied:

“I don’t think you were wrong to get a travel agent – these kinds of situations is what a travel agent is for. They are supposed to have the expertise to navigate through crises like this.”

Another commenter who identified themselves as a travel agent said that if one of their clients received an online check-in error the day before departure, they would expect to handle the problem while the travelers continued enjoying their trip.

Others took an even stronger position, saying the whole point of paying a professional travel agent was to have someone who could handle a complicated airline problem on the traveler’s behalf.

Then Came the 30-Day Wait

Getting back to Nebraska didn’t end the dispute. According to the family, Europe Express initially told them it could take as long as 30 days to resolve the issue.

When that deadline passed, the OP says Europe Express told them KLM had caused the problem and that Europe Express was waiting to receive a refund from KLM before reimbursing the family.

Then communication reportedly became much harder.

“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.”

The family had also purchased travel insurance with help from their agent, but according to the post, their claim was denied.

One commenter who said they work in the travel-insurance industry in Canada explained that the policies they deal with generally don’t cover losses caused by mistakes attributable to an airline, agency or another supplier.

They cautioned that their experience was Canadian rather than American, but wrote:

“The policies I work with do not cover errors made by the airline or travel agency or any other party. The insurance is meant to pick up when an event that was unpredictable and not preventable occurs and no fault can be blamed.”

The OP later said the family planned to go through their policy again to confirm exactly what it covered.

Would a Credit Card Dispute Help? Even Reddit Couldn’t Agree

With more than $15,000 still charged to the family’s cards, several commenters suggested trying a chargeback.

Others immediately pointed out a problem with that strategy.

The family purchased and used the $15,000 replacement tickets. The family received those flights. A dispute over the unused portion of the original itinerary might recover some money, commenters argued, but not necessarily anything close to the extra amount the family spent getting home.

One reply explained:

“A charge back for which charge? There is no grounds to charge back the last minute $15k ticket purchases because OP got what they purchased. A chargeback of the return component of the original tickets might be accepted by the card issuer but this still leaves OP considerably out of pocket.”

Another commenter made essentially the same point: even if the original return tickets were refunded, the cost of those tickets could have been only a fraction of the $15,000 the family had to spend at the last minute.

Other Commenters Started Talking About Lawyers

The family originally posted in r/legaladvice to ask when it would make sense to stop waiting and consider legal action.

One commenter suggested that, if the dispute reached court, the family could potentially name the different parties involved rather than trying to determine the responsible company themselves.

They described it as a “chain of blame” that could include the travel agent, Europe Express, and the airlines involved.

The OP later said that idea was useful precisely because the family still didn’t know who had caused the original problem.

“If we were 100% sure about who to blame, this would be much easier.”

Other commenters suggested starting with an attorney’s demand letter rather than filing a lawsuit immediately.

One lengthy response raised the possibility that UK passenger-rights rules could become relevant depending on the exact facts surrounding the reservation, ticket and operating carrier, although resolving that question would require far more information than appears in the Reddit account.

For the Family, More Than $15,000 Is Still Sitting on Their Credit Cards

The OP said the family has so far tried to remain on good terms with its local travel agent because that person continues to answer their calls.

Europe Express, they say, hasn’t provided the reimbursement they were expecting. The travel-insurance claim has been rejected.

And the family still doesn’t have a definitive explanation for whether the failure occurred with the booking agency, the ticket issuance, KLM, Delta or somewhere between several systems.

Meanwhile, the replacement airfare remains unpaid.

“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.”

The poster summed up the family’s position more simply at the end of the original account:

“It’s not our fault that they went through a faulty third party.”

Note: This article is based on a situation described by a Reddit user and on the comments and follow-up details shared in that thread. I cannot independently verify the events, the booking records, the communications between the companies involved, or which party, if any, was responsible for what happened.

I shared the story not to assign blame or determine who was at fault. I chose to cover it because travelers can sometimes encounter complicated situations when an itinerary involves multiple airlines, codeshare flights or bookings made through a travel agency.

If you’re planning a similar trip, this story may be a useful reminder to ask in advance which airline is operating each flight, where you should check in, who issued the ticket, who to contact if something goes wrong, and what support is available outside normal business hours. 

You can see the entire post and follow-up discussion here – as far as I can see, there are already some deleted comments. 

Violeta-Loredana Pascal is a communications expert, business mentor, and the founder of Earth’s Attractions and PRwave INTERNATIONAL. A pioneer in the Romanian digital PR landscape since 2005, she holds a degree in Communication and Social Sciences from SNSPA Bucharest. Violeta is a senior trainer at AcademiadeAfaceri.ro, where she leverages over 20 years of experience to teach professional courses in PR strategy and workplace productivity. By blending high-level business consulting with a passion for holistic travel and wellness, she empowers solopreneurs to overcome procrastination, build profitable brands, and design a life of purposeful adventure.