Having to come back on the 'self loading freight' thing. Somehow I got the (hopefully wrong) impression that there are poeple who think of such expression as diminutive?
Shame on you!
To come back to the subject. I have not recently flown with any airline that did not ask for my boarding card whith the exception of Lufthansa in FRA and MUC. That is the place they have the automated readers. However, I also have once lived through a boarding where the readers were not functioning and the crew then DID check the boarding cards.