For my first solo overseas trip (about a month in the US with a SYD-SFO return on NZ and a series of one way domestics), I booked what I could online (such as it was in early 2005) and booked other sectors as needed from travel agents.
I needed to get from BWI to BOS in the evening. I had a bus booked in the morning from State Collage, PA where I was staying with a friend for a few days, and was meeting another friend at BOS to stay with them for a few days. I already had the bus booked, but the flight... there were some options in the needed time period, but nothing available to book online, so off to the travel agent.
While talking to the travel agent, I detailed everything I needed and gave them the bus arrival time in Baltimore. They found a flight to BOS that met the time requirements and it was all confirmed with the correct times on the paperwork they printed at the office.
Then when I got home, and rechecked the emailed ticket confirmation, I saw that the agent had booked the morning flight, not the evening flight. ie,
not the flight that we had talked about.
I quickly sent them back a rather annoyed email and got it fixed within a few hours.
Another of the US domestic flights that trip required a paper ticket (the majority were e tickets). The paper ticket had to be printed in Sydney, but there wasn't enough time to get it to Canberra to pick up from the agent before I left, so it was sent to the SYD NZ check in counter for me to collect there.
I still find what happened on the return flight of that trip to be a bit funny.
Landed in AKL from SFO for the connection on to SYD.
There was no one in the terminal when we got off the plane. A few minutes after getting to the SYD gate, there was PA announcement saying that staff may now reenter the evacuated terminal.
They allowed a plane load of people into a terminal that had been evacuated.