Thanks for all the advise. I will certainly be back in touch with the call centre to try and get them to change the tickets for Air France if they are in an alliance. However, I rate my chances at 0 per cent for getting a positive result, as Delta have been 0 per cent helpful in any of this.
One thing I would like to respond to however is the post from PHXFlyer who says and I quote, "All aliens travelling to or through the United
States must be in possession of a valid visa. Should the call center agent have been aware if this? Absolutely. Should the OP have also been aware of this? Absolutely."
I agree with the first half of the statement in that the call centre should be aware of that. It is their job to know that. But why on earth should an Argentinian girl who has never left the borders of her own country know that to transit in the US (ie waiting in an airport to catch a connecting flight to the UK, she needs a transit visa. Just to point out as well, that this visa costs the same money as a normal holiday visa. I have told this story to about 70 people since this incident occured on Saturday night, and not one single person had any idea that you need a transit visa to travel through the United States. This includes people from Argentina, Britain, Dubai, and Australia. But for some reason you think that this is common knowledge.
If my girlfriend had been told by the call centre worker the same thing that everybody is saying now, ie it is the responsibility of the passenger to get the correct info, she would have looked on the US Embassy website to check what she needed to travel and found this information out for herself. But because she was told all she needed to travel was a passport and return ticket, she had absolutely no need to check what she needed to travel on this flight, because Delta had already told her! What she did do was go to the website of the British Embassy to see if there were any special requirements for her to enter my country. Why did she do this you may ask? BECAUSE THIS WAS THE COUNTRY SHE WOULD BE SPENDING THE NEXT 5 WEEKS IN AND SO SHE WANTED TO BE SURE SHE COULD ENTER THE COUNTRY. In all my years of flying I have never seen this before, that you need a transit visa to enter a country's airport. It is for this reason (that it is totally absurd and unobvious) that Delta should be telling all passengers this as a matter of basic customer service! And furthermore, they should definitely tell someone what you need to transit the USA if they specifically ask what they will need. It is crucial. However, I would further point out that to obtain a USA transit visa is a lengthy process and takes over a month. The interview can last upto 2 hours of intense questioning and may result in not getting a visa if they think the potential passenger hasn't got enough proof behind their story. Not only this but also the cost involved; 15 dollars just to ring up for the interview, 131 dollars for the visa and 45 pesos for DHL to post it to you. A little overbudget for the average Argentinian. Not to mention it is the same cost as a holiday visa to the US. And you wonder why Delta do not see fit to tell all passengers that they will need a transit visa to travel? If you were the passenger, wouldn't you just go with an operator that went via Europe or Brazil and just put your 2 fingers up to Delta? Lying thieves.
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