NickelP: The one exception might be if you are extremely specialized. I know one lady that only handles cruises. I could see how that may work when there are only a handful of providers to keep up with and nearly every client you have is looking for the same thing. I also don't understand how a travel agents fees work. Are these paid by the cruise/airplane/hotel etc? I'd like to think most people wouldn't waste their travel agents time, but in reality I think a large percent would figure out what they want with the agent, google it, and be like oh score I can save $25 if I just book it online.

Travel agents are definitely, for the most part, cruise brokers, and the post I was responding to really illustrates the problem. Even if they are knowledgeable, they're knowledgeable about tourist standards. Not everybody wants that. Personally, I'd rather get lost looking for the cheap favela, or at least the delightful bed and breakfast.

My experience with the fiancee's travel agent went like this:

- Had a meeting. Agreed on a tour of Greece with an add-on for Santorini.
- Waited for fifteen minutes while she tried to use Travelocity to do what takes me two.
- Had her mistakenly charge my card for the full balance of the trip instead of the deposit, causing me to accrue hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees over a long weekend.
- Waited three business days for her to call me back while her increasingly worried assistant struggled to communicate how close I was to throwing a brick through her window, because she was "busy with her son".
- Discovered I could have bought the package directly from the package tour company for less.
- Planned our next trip by myself, and saw more of Scotland than any package tour company will even admit exists, meeting interesting people all the way.

It's 2012. This information is no longer the domain of a handful of a skilled professionals, and most travel agents are anything but. Travel agents are, for better or worse, just another occupation that has been replaced by robots.

/ Actually, Globus Monograms is not bad, and China was one place where we really needed a tour. Unlike most, it was the kind where they leave you the hell alone 75% of the time, don't make you get up early to change cities every other day or eat in crappy tourist traps for lunch, and give you a private driver, so that was nice.
// Still no need for an agent in that. Filled that 75% doing awesome things I found on TripAdvisor.

RoyHobbs22: Fark Me To Tears: Excellent news, subby! Now if they'll just open an in-store film development lab, I'll be able to arrange my vacation AND get my vacation pictures developed at the same place I purchase my vacation attire! What a modern convenience this will be!

Maybe they could develop a daily morning milk delivery service too.

I think I would like that.

Maybe twice a week. This WalMart milk that NEVER FREAKING GOES BAD scares me.

/Gallon in the fridge now. Exp date was over two weeks ago, and yes, it has been opened in that time. Still smells and tastes fine. What. The. Hell.

Shaggy_C: I always have to wonder why Americans have the fascination with trying to build their own vacation when they know nothing of the lands they are going to visit.

It's generally been my experience that, after a few hours on TripAdvisor, I'll usually know more than the travel agent about the place I'm going to visit