The travel industry really are their own worst enemy at times in my opinion.
Last year some friends booked a Thomas Cook holiday at a Thomas Cook shop flying with Thomas Cook Airlines. At no stage of the booking or ticketting process did anyone point out to them that their baggage allowance was just 15Kg until they checked-in for the flight. Consequently they faced an unexpected charge for excess baggage of £40 for one bag and £20 for the other.
I am sure that the tickets would have stated 15Kg allowance but on all previous TC holidays had been 20Kg and it never occured to them it would be any different.
Also last year I booked flight-only to Paphos. Two weeks prior to departure I was advised by letter that the flight departure time had been changed from 8am to 1pm 'for commercial reasons'. Inconvenient yes, but no problem really. Arriving at check-in at 10am we were surprised to find in excess of two dozen angry passengers who had been at check-in since 5.30am. They had never been advised of the timing change by either their travel agent or the Tour Operator which by the way also owned the airline (NOT Thomas Cook). By the way,the flight eventually departed at 4.30pm and no-one was provided with any refreshments.
So what are travel agents actually be responsible for, as they seem to have a standard get-out clause of 'You are responsible for checking that all details on this booking are correct'. I personally believe it should be the travel agents responsibility to ensure that the tickets conform to the passengers requirements as advised at the time of booking, and the agent should re-confirm with the passenger on ticket collection such important information as check-in time, flight departure time and hold/hand baggage allowance.