NewbE, since i only book directly with airlines, I don't have any personal stories of problems with Orbitz, Expedia, etc. I have friends who have made the error of booking with an online site and have heard their tales of woe. The typical problem is that a flight time is changed and it cascades through the itinerary... the online site is unwilling to make the needed changes and the airline says call your agency.

If you haven't read stories like that here, you might want to read through some old posts. It's not important enough to me to be "right" to search through old posts.

As I suspected, you speak from hearsay, and we all know what that's worth.

I'd hardly call the specific experiences of personal friends "hearsay".

>>if you think that means that booking through one partner "directly" will cause the other partners to respect you more<<

A Lufthansa employee from Germany treated me with respect at a Star Alliance service center at Bangkok airport and helped me change reservations on a United issued ticket to fly on Asiana between Japan and Seoul. That was 10 years ago.

But you are convinced, without evidence, that a travel agent would not have taken care of your problem? Why?

NewbE, since you seem to have had good experiences booking though online agencies, please tell us about your experiences of such agencies responding to flight change problems.

that would be hearsay & superstition, and we know neither is allowed on fodors.

Every post you read on Fodor's is "hearsay"! Since you are taking advice from the experiences of others. Hearsay is the foundation of an internet travel forum -lol!!