Flying Consultant - with respect
All this self-service rubbish was around in the late 1960's (without computers) at Gatwick. Passengers even pulled off their own (non-automated) baggage tags and tagged their own bags before dropping them on a conveyor! What immediately halted the concept was the hijackings of the early 1970's!!!
Ryanair and EasyJet have only gained strength because of 09/11. their meteoric ascendency without this disaster would not have happened - and with it the desire to run headlong along the automation route without thinking of the real consequences!!!
You pick holes in my arguments - (a) I can't say a lot about, except that security then don't have a clue about who is running around airside and what they're up to (b) Baggage regularly travels on some airlines (mainly US carriers) when the passenger has failed to turn up at the gate - happens every other week here at Gatwick, so who are you kidding??? (c) Plans are afoot (and trials at Heathrow are beginning with airport staff) to enable "FastTrack" Iris scanning for Elite Frequent Flyers where security personnel would no longer be checking identity - so not irrelevant, just a few years away!!!
You believe what you want - the next hijacking or major incident (and most airlines have already let their guards down) will put self service machines firmly back in the warehouses!!!