Thanks for the spanking, Jana. I promise to be a better customer in the future. Please let me continue to spend money on your airline.

Give it another year, and they will let us feed our own tickets into the machine at the gate (or God forbid, just swipe a card). At that stage, between Web booking, Easy Check-In, and trusting me to use the gate boarding machine, I'll be on my way without danger of being treated like an imposition. Maybe the machines can say nice things, like "thanks for your business"