Seriously? I haven't tried this maneuver with them on an international, since I usually am checking luggage and there's no benefit for me to do online. Since PG is reasonably progressive, I would have thought that they'd allow online but warn they will do final document check at gate. So the question of IAN-UK stands: can he do true check-in at the PG airside transit desk, or will they send him outside through immigration to the regular check-in desk on the nonsecure side of departures? The latter would seriously suck on a tight connection.