My 2 cents for what it's worth about the flights & travel agents now v then is that since Covid there have not been the number of flights to choose from that there were in the old days, and they (tv producers) need to have already bought & paid for the seats or they run the risk of there not actually being seats available until the next day. Whereas in the old days (pre-2020) there were a host of flights leaving to choose from & if one flight was full there would be others to get a ticket for.
I only suggest this as I've been looking at international flights & whereas in 2019 there were 7 or 8 flights a day at various times to my destination from just 1 airport, there are now only 2 or at most 3 different flights from the same airport on any given day.
As I say, just a thought.