Seat selection

Even if it is her duty what can you do about it?

She should have told you as part of good customer service, however, was she obligated - no.

I would though follow up with her and let her know you are dissatisfied with her service. Explain that you can directly book such things with the airlines and since she did not give you customer service you find no reason to utilize a travel agent in the future if they do not provide advice and proper customer service. What the heck is the purpose of even have a travel agent? That is why you are using an agent rather than booking online to help deal with all the small stuff and not to have to read all the airline instructions online.

As an aside it is getting more and more prevalent to charge people in order to book a seat. Airlines are nickel and diming for anything they can so this additional cost is not surprising. But to be honest - this is lack of customer service and travel agents are being phased out due to online booking and websites so she should be apologizing at the very least and not make the assumption that everyone knows about these crazy fees airlines keep tacking on. Hopefully you also realize you are probably going to have to pay for any checked bags.

Why The heck would the travel agent care if she bothered to say all this stuff? Waste of time.

1) she doesn't travel often or would have known she had to pay to book a seat
2) the travel agent gets her business by telling you that low price. She's hiding the extra costs on purpose. She know no one except infrequent travelers need a travel agent.

The travel agent that wants repeat business and does not want to have bad reviews would care about that "stuff."

The travel agent gets her or his business by providing a service. Travel agents do not necessarily quote you the low price to get your business, they get it by providing a service -- for example like the poster is requesting. The poster is requesting a special service traveling with a large number of people. My guess that is why the poster is using a travel agent.

Typically it is cheaper to book directly with the airlines - believe me I travel enough and have arrange travel enough for others not as savvy in finding travel deals.

And it is not true that you need to pay to book a seat. It is beginning to happen more often but it is not all that prevalent yet. It depends on the airlines and the situation.

As a matter of fact I just had family book a flight for my daughter - they offered to pay for her flight so they could see her over the summer - my only requirement was a direct flight and to sign her up as an unaccompanied minor (we would pay this fee). She is just old enough to travel on her own, but has never traveled completely by herself - prior she traveled with her older sister.

Any way they sent us a copy of the paper (as needed for this situation) and there was no seat assigned - I called the airline got her a seat -- no extra cost.

Similar to family that visited us recently. They did not have a seat assignment - as they were older adults, I called for them, spoke with their travel agent and he said we want to make you a satisfied customer and got a seat assignment - again no additional cost.

So you see --- two of my most recent dealings with the airlines and with a travel agent resulted in no charge for a seat assignment. So you would not necessarily know you would need to pay extra unless you read the fine print or in dealing with an agent that they provide the service they should and they make this clear.