Hi there,
I am a Indian national and have been staying in USA with my family. Me and my wife - have US Green cards (valid till 2020) and my daughter is a US citizen.
We were looking forward to vacationing in Costa Rica recently. I spent most of the time researching on places to visit in Costa Rica and completely overlooked the 6 months validity requirement of Passport. All the time, I thought a valid passport and valid green card should suffice. My passport was valid for more than 6 months, but my wife's passport had only 5 months left on it..
We flew from SFO to SJO (San Jose, CR) and on reaching SJO were denied entry by CR immigration due to my wife's passport being less than 6 months valid. We had to board a return flight rightaway from SJO to SFO and the airlines helped us with that. We were totally devastated with the entire ordeal, to say the least. My 4 year old daughter was the most upset as she was so looking forward to Costa Rica (After going to daycare and preschools almost everyday since the age of 2 - she loves vacationing!!).
I totally understand that I am to blame for this goof-up. On our way back, the airline people at SJO did tell us - that the airline agent at SFO should have noticed that my wife's passport was < 6 months valid and stopped us from boarding the flight.
So, at this point (though it does not sound ethical) to recover some of my loss, do I have any chance of calling the airline and asking them for a airline-credit - that I can use to travel again to CR? I did call the airline once, and was asked to file a complain on their website - which was never responded..
Shall I consider disputing the airline tickets charges on my credit-card?

Thanks,
SS