<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by misstree:
Travel agents should be compensated for hotels, cars, cruises and land itineraries only. [...] "choosing" an airline in their computer ? [...] $1000 ticket yielded $100 to the travel agent - for what ? a phone call and writing a ticket, which took all of five minutes. [...] 10 percent or any commission for doing that is ridiculous. </font>
I see. By that logic, I'm surprised you think they should get a commission for making hotel reservations, since the process, as you perceive it, does not appear any more difficult. Are you just agreeing with airlines here because you work for one?
Speaking of which, it's nice that the airlines think that their "30-second" interventions (ticket re-issue and whatnot) are worth $75 or more, while everyone else's is worthless.
Having booked tickets with travel agents and directly from the airlines, I would guess from your post above that you haven't dealt with a lot of TA's, or just very bad ones.