Hi I am a travel agent, and I agree with the comments, 99.9% of us and yes I know you travellers out there will disagree, we DO NOT try to deceive customers.
We do not always show the same availability in our GDS ( Galileo, Sabre, Amadeus) that is online.
Booking online a lot of the time is tedious and expensive and time consuming with the web booking tool not always functioning or incredibly slow as I am sure others can attest to.
We do not make much money from a domestic booking and make little or no commission - 3% at most of a fare ( and remember the fare you see online includes taxes which are non commissionable) so if your fare to Perth is $400 then you can bet the commission the agent makes at best is on $300 and that would be as little as $9 a ticket, and I would say for domestic this is better than it has been for a while.
I only book domestic for regular clients, or ones I know dont use the internet as there is no money in it, and I am sorry for people when I say this, but it is a business. We dont have 50% off sales as some people think because 10% on any booking is huge commission these days.
So when you think of all the time you visit the agent, the enquiries, the back and forth with itineraries, the payment and accounting on a file, the paying of suppliers, the collection, checking and dispersing documents, processing visas, on a per hour basis it is not a huge money maker.
And to add to this everyone I know who is a travel agent is a true professional that only wants the best possible holiday for their clients. This is our reward.
For the person who wants to rip the head off the travel agent who is making as little money as the person looking after their child in a child care centre and thinks we are without morals, try one day in our job and see how emotionally and mentally drained you are. I have worked for hours and hours on a booking with commission return being as little as $100 on a domestic booking, and that is gross profit.
How many of you travellers are working for this little a reward but we do our job. I cant believe someone intentionally ripped off your parents, as there is no reason to do so, really the difference between $6 commission and $9 commission really. The best suggestion I have read is use your feet, just dont go back because with clients that are this judgmental it is no wonder a lot give up the job.
If you have checked the internet and knew there were seats why didnt you use the internet and book. I dont have a problem with clients that book their own domestic bookings as it frees me up to work on large and complicated itineraries.
Sure for elderly people, such as my parents and their friends who live on the central coast I have no problem doing this at all, and I book whatever works out the most reasonable. Dont jump online and do this, it demeans all of us that work hard. And yes airlines are to blame, they jack up prices on flights that increase the cost to customers, but they up the taxes not the fare. Agents only make commission on the fare not the taxes.
A recent fare to the US was with Qantas was only $550 return, taxes were $950, so a travel agent makes a mere 5% of the $550 - $27.50- so when you book, get itineraries, have yuor agent book meals, seats, assist with your visa, and then print out the documents, think the Agency and not the travel agent just made a staggering $27.50 on me.. Wow.