I guess what I hear you all saying - from both a client and a TA point of view - is that no one minds the client shopping around - giving the TA an opportunity to give it his or her best shot - and then having the client make up his or her mind. Assuming of course that you don't use a lot of the TA's time - and expect all kinds of free advice even if you decide to book yourself. Kind of like you wouldn't ask a full service financial broker to analyze a lot of securities for you - and then go buy something he or she recommends on line to save the commission. Or - in my case - if I use a bricks and mortar store to review a lot of travel books to see which I like - I don't use the information I get at the store to go order what I want on Amazon. If that's what you're telling me - that sounds fair enough.

A few more questions. I assume that TAs make zilch on plane tickets these days - except perhaps for very expensive ones. And that they don't make anything on reward tickets. So a TA wouldn't mind if a client handled the plane tickets - and he or she booked the hotel(s). Am I correct?

What about car rentals? I only rent a car about once a year - and I generally use an Entertainment Book coupon - or the Florida Bar discount - or similar - whichever gives me the best deal. At a lot of places these days - the car rentals are cheap - it's the taxes that are a killer (my brother lives in the Phoenix area - and I think the taxes there are about 40% of the total cost of renting).

What about restaurant reservations (I assume they're only done as a client courtesy)? I use OpenTable a fair amount these days - and it's ok. Personal email to a big deal restaurant is better.

To give a "for example" - I will be taking a trip this summer. Nephew is getting married. He couldn't pick a place like Chicago (where he lives). The wedding's in Brighton Michigan (near Detroit). The best place there is a Homewood Suites (I'm a Hilton Honors person) - a bit more than $100/night (AARP rate). I love my nephew - but the idea of going 1000 miles and just seeing Brighton isn't too appealing. So I thought I'd combine the wedding with a trip to Chicago. JAX/Detroit/Chicago/JAX - something like that. Rent a car for our stay in Brighton and to drive between the 2 cities. Stay at the Peninsula in Chicago for maybe 4 days. On a trip like this - I assume that a TA would basically be interested in the Peninsula stay (most bang for fewest hours spent). He or she might handle the other details - but wouldn't shed any tears if I handled them myself. That would be my preference too. Is my thinking correct? Robyn

P.S. Totally OT - but I just found a neat thing. I like Gridskipper for design/architecture/scene/restaurant/etc. info. And you can now set up a Gridskipper gadget on your Google home page for a city you're interested in. I did it for Paris. Am still searching for Brighton .