Booking on your own

These are just some funny situations I thought you may like to read.
There was a discussion on a travel forum on the reasons why people use travel consultants for their travel plans. Of course the obvious answer is because it saves you time and most of the time, money.
Many people, especially the young, computer savvy, feel they can just as easily do it themselves. Sure if you have the time to spend looking at literally thousands of sites and options.
One thing an agent can do, is find the necessary information a lot faster and knows the reputable suppliers to deal with. They also have an agent community to get suggestions and tips from other agents personal travels and their clients experiences.
MYTH:
Some people are under the impression that booking through a travel consultant for something they can easily book themselves, say a flight and hotel, will be cheaper booking direct because of the agents commission. Not true. The price will be exactly the same whether you buy direct or with an agent as the supplier gives the agents commission (as slim and dwindling as that may be now) out of the same fare price. The agent though, can often find discounts that you may not be aware of.

Saying that, here are some quite amusing stories I read from other agents, of people who thought they had the answers and refused help.
This first one was helping a family member, so she was a little cheeky to him, but in a loving way I'm sure.
I am booking my nephew's honeymoon in Greece- so he tells me he found airfare for $500.00 per person with taxes! I'm not sure what he found or where he went to find this fare. So I check all airfare websites like cheapoair and cheapticket etc-still not seeing anything close to his fare-now being the wise guy he is-his comment to me (his aunt) is "well I guess I should book my own airfare because I found it $500 cheaper then you-maybe I should be a travel agent!" Wanting to be sure, I tell him to send me the flights he has found, I'll admit, I had a little giggle to myself. I sent him back an email and said "Mr travel agent I hope you have fun in Athens GEORGIA!!!"
He had the wrong city code! and that's one of those reasons why you need a travel agent!!

The next one is from another agent who mentioned similar situations happening before, but no one went as far as this man did. I think his bride may have taken over here.
I also have a relative that felt it wasn't worth me helping and just wanted to save some money. He not only booked himself to Rochester, New York instead of Rochester, Minnesota, but he actually FLEW there! It was only when he landed and asked how to get to the Mayo Clinic that he was told he's in the wrong place. He ended up driving to New York and trying again.