Firstly the “Pandoras Box” of an agency building their fee into the pricing of a ticket. Ain’t going to happen. The airlines “own” the ticket and have made it abundantly clear on numerous occasions they will not permit the agency to show its’ fee on the ticket. In the early days there were various attempts in several countries to “misuse” a “tax” code for that purpose but it was rejected. The airlines have provided a document for agents to use if the fee is paid by passenger craedit/charge/debit card but since there is a fee for its’ use and they have to wait for the money most agents have twigged that it’s simply not worth using.

The other point is that it’s all very well for IATA to mandate the use of the EMD but that’s no use if the user doesn’t know what the fee is. The GDS have to build pricing engines that will permit agencys to quote fees and websites to do the same so that when it comes time to issue the EMD the fee is accurate.

And… you have no idea of the complexities behind all this. Just to give you a flavour it’s quite possible for the same product on a given flight (e.g. a meal) to be charged differently depending on whose code you’re flying on. Life also gets complex on connections; do you want a pillow/blanket? On a long haul maybe but on the short connecting flight? How will the airline price that for the whole journey meaning you get one on the short flight whether you want it or not or by segment? Then when it comes to issuing the EMD you have to associate the coupons on the EMD that pay for the various fees (one coupon per fee) with the ticket coupon so that at checkin the airline knows what you’ve paid for. Of itself, not too difficult for computers but then you decide to add another chargeable product so the association has to take place after the ticket issue and now you (potentially) have two EMD with different numbers associated with any given coupon and don’t get me stared on whta happens when IROPs happen and either the product isn’t provided or the passenger is reouted……

As long as the agency discloses the amount of their fee, this is not a problem. I think that if they have to list what is paid for on the EMD, as you stated, “The charges would then show up on an “e-coupon” attached to the ticket showing what has been paid.”, then the client will know what they were charged for. It is OLAs that have the easiest time hiding fees, since they usually use their own merchant account instead of the airlines’. Many people are told there are no fees but when I can book the same flights in a GDS for $5 or $10, less that is a fee they have added. It is these kinds of hidden fees that give travel a bad name.