Flight search engines lied to me, so I tried a travel agent for once

I planned a trip to Portugal for next month and spent 3 weeks watching Google Flights and Skyscanner bounce between $780 and $950 for the same route out of Newark. Then my coworker dared me to call this old school travel agent her mom uses, and I figured why not since I had nothing to lose. She quoted me $640 on a flight I literally saw priced at $890 an hour earlier, bundled with a refundable fare and no seat selection fees. Turns out those engines hide the cheaper fares from smaller carriers and don't show you the option to hold a ticket for 24 hours without paying. I even checked the airline's own site and it still showed $700 something, so it wasn't just me being dumb. Has anyone else gone back to a human agent for international trips, or is this just a fluke with Portugal routes?