pinniped

I'm really unlikely to do that unless there is seriously no other way to complete the trip. Talking to humans to book airline tickets...seems so antiquated.

Generally I think *some* airline sites are getting better at showing and ticketing their entire alliance (or close to it). But they still have a long, long way to go. Orbitz in particular seems to show more multi-airline itins than a lot of airline sites.

Yes. At least in my own long-ago experience; no idea if this has gotten better. I once had a ticket issued by a third-party agent where the airline itself couldn't easily modify/reissue the ticket. So I was stuck calling back to the travel agent in the USA and getting them to handle the issue. I vowed then to never again use a third party unless I really didn't have a choice.

That said, the travel agent (Orbitz) won the tiebreaker when the other option was spending an hour on the phone with someone like Egypt Air.

Wayfahrer

Thanks for the update.