In the past I've done the on-line check-in thing. Booked my seat, got my boarding pass. Gone to the terminal. Handed over my checked in luggage at the baggage counter. Then all I had to deal with is the metal detector gates and dumping everything metallic into plastic trays as well as getting out my laptop. (Though fortunately I already know to do that because in the great airport tradition of "We'll happily charge like a wounded bull and make tens of millions of dollars every year, but we can't be bothered putting up clear instruction signs or, gods forbid, an airport directory so that you can find a decent place to eat", there is bupkis in the way of instructions at the current security gates. Heaven help infrequent fliers.)

However Qantas, in its wisdom, has decided to do away with the baggage drops and get you, the paying passenger, to do the work of its staff so that it can cut costs. You therefore have to go through machines like these to check in your baggage. These machines will ask you questions like "How many bags will be checked in without a Q-Tag" without bothering to explain to you what the h3ll a Q-Tag is. You are then expected to attach stickers to your baggage and take it to a station down the back somewhere where you can put it on a conveyor belt and watch a screen telling you "Interference detected, action cancelled" until one of the few remaining Qantas staff members comes along to assist you.

And all the while, you can bet that some idiot marketing 'droid at Qantas will be parroting the line "Our customers have told us that this is what they want", as you watch their noses grow an inch with each telling.

Service... I mean, "cost" cutting. Who doesn't love it? (Assuming that the "who" is a CEO whose bonus depends on the bottom line... oh wait, I forgot that these days they get a bonus no matter what the result.)

Disclaimer: Yes, I am a Qantas shareholder. Doesn't stop me from being hacked off with them when they pee on their customers in this fashion.