I booked a flight with Northwest Airlines online last night. I called them today with a couple of questions about my reservation. I was giddy that in the maze of button pressing, I was able, with only a several minute delay, to talk to a live person. I had three words out of my mouth when she said, "Oh you booked this online; you need to talk to an internet agent". Click, I was on hold again. This time I don't know how long I was on hold, but I can now recite the NWA info of the day verbatim.
So I gave up and found that I could e-mail my question to a (presumably) live person at the other end of the fiber optic cable. Voila, I had a response within 5 minutes! She gave me detailed answers to my questions. Unfortunately one of her suggestions still didn't get me the desired result, so I wrote her back and voila encore, an almost instantaneous reply that she would take care of it herself if I supplied her with the required information, and she did as promised.
Recently I asked a question on another non travel-related website in a live, instant message-type format. Again, the cyberspace person was very helpful.
I guess there's no turning back, but I miss the voice at the other end of the line.
Thanks for letting me vent