I've been working with a travel agent who booked our flights for our last two trips to Europe. He got pulled into a project and referred me to someone else who for the past three weeks has been giving me the run around. Believe it or not, I still haven't seen a itinerary, but just a verbal quote of $1600 pp for flights to Greece from SFO and two domestic flights within to/from the islands for June 07. This seems very expensive to me as they are a consolidator and it's pretty much the same price as what I'm getting on Expedia. Is this reasonable for others who have already booked or frequently travel to Greece? I'm curious to see what others have been able to find/book.

I'm also looking for recommendations on travel agents/consolidators you've worked with.

Thanks for all your assistance.

Sounds like you're not getting your money's worth. I'd bail on them in a New York minute.

Check the cost of the flights on Kayak.com. I use that as a base when looking for flights. Generally consolidators are not any cheaper than what can be found on the web when it comes to flights. They might be able to provide cheaper packages if car rentals and hotels are included.

We used Uli at the Dolphin Hellas Travel Agency in Athens. She was great, made our arrangements in record time and was delightful to work with. She was able to get us hotel reservations at the Grande Bretagne in Athens and the Katikies in Santorini when they had answered originally that they were totally booked. Have a wonderful trip.
AKNIC

DIY. You CAN. But you'll have to shop and commit some time to it.

About consolidator tickets ... travel agents will typically add in a commission to the "net" fare that the consolidator is providing. Since your agent knows what the published fares are, he/she can add just enough commission to still undercut published fares but earn a commission for him/herself.

That's why TAs use consolidators; with a few exceptions, there aren't commissions anymore on published airfares.

I know a *very* good air expert at my agency [disclaimer: I am a travel agent, but I really don't do air]. Since advertising is not allowed on the forum, if you send me an email, I'll get you the information on my colleague.

Although I booked my own rt from NYC to Athens, we used Fantasy Travel for island flights and flights to Istanbul. Although I balked when they asked me to send copies of credit card, and to comply with other red tape, in the end I was very glad I had used a local agent in Athens who was on hand to respond to last minute issues and make changes for us. So I would investigate this option as well; both Fantasy and the above-mentioned Dolphin Hellas come highly recommended. I would not use them for hotels, though; you can do that on your own.

Thanks to everyone for their advise. I have bailed on the travel agent last week but suprisingly got an itneriary that had me arriving into athens at 2am!

travelhorizons- Thank you for the offer. I will be sending my email to you shortly.