Third party issued a wrong ticket

Question

I had booked a ticket last month from JFK to TRV in Kuwait Airlines for 9th December.
Since there was a rescheduling done by the airlines, they gave me an alternate flight on 8th with no additional charges.

When I went to board the flight on 8th, they airlines denied the boarding as the flight has a stop in London.
My H1B had expired that time and I agree that the did the right thing. I know this issue that I cannot go through London with an expired Visa.

But nothing was mentioned in the ticket that it stops in London and as the third party Justfly.com reissued the ticket, its the responsibility of them to let me know that there is a stop in London.

On 8th evening I talked to them and somehow managed to rebook the ticket on 9th (this time to Kochi as Trivandrum was not available). Since I had to travel from Kochi to Trivandrum they sent me a cheque worth $100.
Now its clear that they accepted the mistake and not mine.

I live in New Jersey and have to travel like 50 miles to get to JFK, and since I had to travel 2 times to the airport, can I ask Justfly to compensate the expenses to travel to JFK on 8th?

I would like to add more details to it. Its after like hours of conversation that they came up with the solution of giving an alternate ticket as they blamed me first. What about the stress that i faced and losing one day of my vacation?

Answer 1

As a rule of thumb, visas are always your responsibility, not the travel agent's or the airline's responsibility. This includes finding out if there are stopovers that require a visa along the way, and Justfly sets this out in their T&C:

As a traveler, you must know and understand the applicable legal requirements related to travel, including passport, visa and health requirements. We will assist you in this regard, both through our website and with live support. However, the ultimate responsibility for obtaining this information and complying with any and all passport, visa, health or other requirements remains solely and exclusively with you.

That said, your case is particularly tricky, because JWK-KWI typically does not stop in London (I presume you flew on KU118?) and they had the moral (if not legal) responsibility to warn you when they rebooked you. However, after you were denied boarding, the agent has already rebooked you again and credited you for not being able to connect all the way, which is a very nice gesture on their part. And since you've accepted their previous offer and the "case is closed" as far as they're concerned, you'll have an extra hard time convincing them to cough up more money.