The one problem with relying on a travel agent IF something goes wrong is getting in touch with them and what created the problem to begin with. You have a unique situation that not everyone else will have.

A few years ago my mother-in-law booked a family vacation to Punta Cana over the Christmas/New Years time period. We all know what usually happens to air travel over Thanksgiving and the year end major holidays....DELAYS, CANCELLED FLIGHTS and WEATHER. Bad weather moved in, delayed several departures by 3 days and the travel agent couldn't do a thing about it and was not available over the weekend when things started to look bad.

I am not knocking travel agents but it is still up to the person that has their name on the ticket to take action and do so quickly when a problem arises. The airlines nor travel agents control the weather and one little hiccup in the system and chaos breaks out.

As Carol stated, perhaps with a hotel, a resort or a package vacation a travel agent can possibly be of assistance and pull some strings. With air travel, not so much other than booking or rebooking a flight and they will not have any better access or prices than the airline itself will. I am pretty sure they use the same reservation system.