Cian, what difference does that make? I will still be sitting in an EI aircraft for which they will charge, so does it matter if i purchase the ticket directly from them or through a web travel agent?
When you're blaming EI for the price, its a fairly critical difference. EI aren't selling the tickets or setting the price you're paying for them, hence they're not the ones who need to "compete". Ditto the baggage situation.
The only tickets EI sell to Asia are via DXB on EK.