Booked tickets with my Air France points for my family. It was just two segments on Delta JNB-ATL-LAX. Called AF to add infant and was told to do so through Delta as they were sole operating carrier. Delta issued infant ticket. Noticed later that infant name was misspelled, and my wife got her new passport with marital name (ticket was booked with maiden name). Called Delta and they fixed the misspelling and added my wife's marital name and confirmed the reservation (they sent me email confirmation and online everything showed up correctly).

On departure day at airport, DL agents couldn't check my wife in because eticket name didn't match reservation name, and they wouldn't touch ticket because it was 057 ticket stock for Air France. Pleaded with them that it was Delta that had confirmed the change, but they wouldn't budge or reissue the ticket. Air France desk was closed. Called Delta customer service and they were no help, they transferred me to Air France who couldn't help. Ended up denied boarding as they couldn't check us in. Frustrating as we were 3 hours early to airport and had to buy walk up ticket on United Airlines to get home.

My question - is there any recourse? Would really like to have the UA tickets reimbursed more than anything - is that wishful thinking? I've complained to both Air France and Delta but no response yet. Air France refunded the reservation and waived fees to redeposit miles, but really feel we should be reimbursed as this was clearly their fault. I've had this thing sort of happen before with United and Star alliance partners after scheduled changes and such, but United's always been able to fix it. I'm shocked despite the joint venture and close relationship between DL/AF that this sort of thing could even happen.