How do travel agents find such good deals?

Recently my family was trying to find a flight deal to Europe for a good price. online cheapest that we could find for June were $1,700+(most with 2 or 3 stops)





So we decided to call our agent that our relatives know. He found us a deal for $1,300! one stop!





then I went on that airline's site wich is delta, and tryed to search for te same flight only to find that THE SAME tickets that we're getting are being sold for $1,300 on delta's main site!





Is there something im missing like not searching good enough, although im pretty sure 1,500 is the cheapest you can find to Europe these days. and im flying to Moscow...which is even more east. and how do the agents find such good deals? so easily? dont they earn money from doing that too?

How do travel agents find such good deals?
To get the really good deals with trans-Atlantic flights(and trust me I booked both on line and thro agents for years) is to do one of 4 things


1-book either early or late thro the internet(the cheap flights go 1st and don't re-appear till just before the flight--early varies on the carrier-can be 6 months or 8 months or even a year)


2-Use the travel agent the same way except wait till the last moment (thats when they try to offload the ones they cant sell--remember they bought the early ones you were trying to buy all these months ago)


3- Try to book a flight to somewhere close to where you are going-ie a flight to London Gatwick is far cheaper than a flight to London Heathrow


4-wait till a carrier has an on-line sale(can be really cheap but you have to catch them).Usually held between X'mas and New Year