Does the agent get paid by the customer? I thought they received a commission on the sale from the carrier-maybe I've got that wrong.

There was another recent thread discussing some similar themes on the Alitalia board.

The same comment was made that the TA often jealously guards the passenger's contact information-perhaps for their own understandable commercial reasons.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alita...lia-sucks.html

I can understand that a passenger doesnt wish to suffer information overload but the precise responsibilty for channelling significant information from carrier to passenger still seems a little vague to me when there is a TA involved.