full ticket cancelled by first leg airline.
 

Hi! I need help and advise, was suppose to fly BHX to ORD, no information on ticket booked via online travel site, about check in or any other visa information. reached airport 1hour 15 min before departure as it was an European flight. At check-in was asked to apply for ESTA visa which too time as I was travelling with my two kids. was told check-in will shut at 7:20 asked if I can do the Esta when I have a 2hrs 35 min stopover before flight to USA, was told donot worry we will sort out just get visa done. check-in counter shut off before 7:20 when airline counter was approached by this time flight was at gate. the check -in staff had torn my booking and binned before leaving. airline counter official took it out of the bin and checked what can be done, told us to call travel agent.
called travel agent as the fight was still at the gate, travel agent said will book me on to evening flight and connecting flight next morning will have to pay another £175+45 booking fee per passenger. at this point the call was dropped. so I rang again, flight had left by now, the travel agent changed the story said they cannot offer me anything as I had missed this flight and only £70 per passenger can be refunded. by this time I realised that the car was parked at drop off so we decided to go home and sort this out. £47 car park cost.
spoke to travel agent was told will try and re-arrange my flight for the 11th they have to check with airline. After speaking to the airline came back and told me my full travel ticket, outbound and in-bound has been cancelled and I will not get much only unused taxes as it was no show.
Please can anyone help.
thank you

No help possible. You the traveller are responsible for fulfilling all immigration requirements. If you expect to have been spoon fed these requirements you erred in using an OTA.

And, as an aside, your user name does not inspire anyone to sympathize.

OP - With the limited details you provided, it's really hard to provide any meaningful advice. As a starting point, you suggest that you were departing BHX. That is Birmingham, Alabama, USA and there would not be an visa requirements for that service. So, what were you actually booked to fly (routing, airline) and who is the TA?

As a general proposition, it is 100% your responsibility to present all required documents for travel (passport, visa or ESTA). It is also 100% your responsibility to determine which documents you need and to have them ready well before your flight.

As a second general proposition, when you do not board as scheduled, your entire ticket is cancelled. Whether it retains any value is a matter of the fare rules for the ticket. Here, it appears that you had a restricted ticket and all of the value is in taxes or the like.

If the TA is able to rebook you at little or no cost, that is a fantastic result.

Again, garbage in -- garbage out. Provide the exact details and people here can provide you with better advice.

As others said, it's the passenger's responsibility to sort out travel documents and visas/ESTA before. If documents are missing, the airline will not be able to check you in. The US, in particular, is known for strict requirements and will fine airlines that fail to make sure all of them are met.

It's good practice to do online check-in the day before your flight so that you can spot and correct potential problems.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"As a starting point, you suggest that you were departing BHX. That is Birmingham, Alabama, USA and there would not be an visa requirements for that service."

Uh, no. BHX is Birmingham, England.

thanks for all the help it is uk and travel agent offered no help we were on time with visa but checkin staff went off early.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Do you have proof (e.g., a photo taken on your phone showing that the check-in desk was closed before the stated closing time)? If so, you might have some recourse; if not, I think you've got trouble. Also, since this was an international itinerary, what was your airline's recommended time frame for checking in at BHX for a trip to the U.S.? (The fact that the first leg was not the TATL leg might not affect the check-in time for an international journey with a final destination outside of Europe.)

Ultimately, though, it was very poor planning on your part not to investigate -- and satisfy -- visa requirements before you arrived at the airport.

Was it an OLTA or a regular real live human (or bricks and mortar) travel agent? What airlines and what connection?