with the introduction of e-tickets, buying airline fares 'from the other side' became less difficult and no 'need' of a travel agent involved doing it for you anymore.

But, to do it, we still must start our trip/flight-segments from the other side.

I just booked and bought this week several inner Australian flights on Ansett: e-tickets for a 21-day advanced fare that are '0nly fore sale in Australia' from Switzerland - I didn't cheat anything, I gave/entered my swiss address and swiss credit card. Ansett's online booking site seems to consider an e-ticket-sale as an InnerAustralian sale (and why shouldn't it be that way anyhow?). I afterwards got confirmation by email (to my swiss email-address ending on 'ch' = 'Confoederatio Helvetica') from Ansett that all bookings are ok.