I would advise against booking with an agent right now as you may find it hard to cancel should the effects of this pandemic not be over by then. We have been booking direct with airlines for 18 months now.
We find that Aer Lingus offer the best deals at the moment if you want to leave from a northern airport. I've done the Iceland Air flight before and it's decent, the only thing to remember is there are no free meals and no in-flight entertainment in their planes.
Lastly, I have often used KLM to do Chicago/Amsterdam/Teesside and its great apart from KLM are rubbish and there is often a long wait in Amsterdam.
What does your mate do out here? I'm surprised our paths haven't crossed (maybe they have!)