2. Many agencies are vying for your business; offering lowest price guarantees, price beats and price matches – why wouldn’t you book with a human?

One of my biggest pet peeves was that people would just assume that agencies are more expensive. Some (not all) agencies don’t even charge a booking fee. Since the Internet is the biggest competitor to travel agents- many agencies have policies where they can match or beat any price you’re finding (except perhaps those on auction type sites- or those where you book but don’t know where you’re staying – such as hotwire). Besides, isn’t it nice to be able to know you’ve helped support a human being and not just a massive company- since most travel agent jobs are at least partially (if not fully) commission-based.