As a travel agent, I would myself feel some responsibility but there would be several questions.

1) What information was the travel agent given? Was it clear the traveler was supposed to go to California? If not, the agent probably should have asked, but see #2 below.

2) Our agency uses Sabre, the most widely used computer booking system among travel agents world wide. Out of curiosity, I requested the three letter city code for "Carlsbad". In most cases where there are multiple cities with the same name, the computer lists them all. In the case of "Carlsbad", only the New Mexico city code (CNM) appeared. I went back and even put in "Carlsbad, CA". Again only the NMex city code appeared. I happen to have a client who flies to Carlsbad, CA regularly, so I know the code. When I put in the CA code and asked for the city, it came up "San Diego/Carlsbad". So without knowing for sure that the person needed to go to CA, it is easy to see how mistake got made.

3) Since the traveler got to her destination before the match started, it is hard to put a $ amount on the liability. There is no assurance, of course, that she would have won the match, even if the flight arrangements were correct, and she did not have to pay to get the mistake corrected.

I agree that there is a level of responsibility for the traveler to check her flight information, and she had numerous opportunities to do so, but I do think a good agent would have been more careful.