But I am not talking about comparison shopping here, nor were these fares any special offer advertised on another website without the fees... *I* did the flight searches straight from the airline websites, and got the fares showing "base fare:x+taxes and charges:y+booking fee:arm and leg = total".
The multi-airline TAs all show final prices, even when part of that is their own booking fee, and it is cheaper to buy from the TA than the airline...This is totally baffling! I could see some logic if they were working from "special" unpublished fare buckets to show a lower/similar total cost. But paying EUR20 extra for the privilege of booking through a TA, as opposed to the airline itself, isn't something that I am about to do anytime soon!