<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by GUWonder:
Interesting hypothetical scenario would be that if travel agents were the only distribution channel and they were paid a percentage of the base fare, then they would not necessarily push/exploit the unimaginably cheap fare...</font>
This is the "good old days" of travel agents. When I first started traveling for business in 1995 or so, I booked all travel through a human travel agent. I just took what he/she gave me in terms of airfare.
However, about six months after I'd been doing this, I found the area on AOL where I could log into Saabre and look at airfares. I suddenly noticed that I
wasn't getting the lowest fares, even though I was asking for them. The reason: at the time, the travel agents took a percentage juice on each ticket.
After learning how to look at Saabre, I would always do my research before calling the travel agent. He/she'd say "ORD-DCA...best I can do there is $450. You're traveling on such
busy days!" and I'd read back flight numbers, fare codes, etc. and they'd say "Oh...didn't see that one...that'll be $175."
The Internet isn't perfect, but it's a huge step forward when it comes to travel planning.