Hi friends! Responsiveness and friendlyness definitely counts but airfare is something beyond the control of the travel agencies. The fare depends on airlines, class of service, season of travel (lean season, shoulder or peak season), week-end or week-days, return date and many other restrictions like date change, cancellation, refund etc. The more restrictions are there, the cheaper is the fare. Secondly, there are various countrolled classes.L K H Q V and so forth. When you contact a particular agency, the agent will look for the cheapest class which has seats available and another moment, when you contact another company...the same class might have been already sold out and he or she will give you the fare of next available cheapest class. If its the same airlines, same date of travel, same class of service but you get different fares from two companies, that means that one company has better rate than the other from the airlines.Significantly, there is not a vast difference in the services charges, the travel companies earn by selling tickets. So, you can definitely look for the cheapest fares but please do not evaluate a travel company on the basis of the fares you get. Secondly, its impossible that one travel company charges you penalty for date change and other company does not in the same airlines, same travel itinerary, same travel date and same class of service. Because its the airlines who decides about the penalties for changes. But its possible that one agent can be less trained or informed than other agent. An incompetent travel agent certainly can give you wrong information.