We flew from Stansted to Gran Canaria in March and had printed our boarding passes. We went to the Thomson desks, one was for pre printed boarded passes and one for the 'old system'. It basically works the same, they still weigh your cases and pop on your printed bar code sticker and you get your receipt, so don't worry anyone! I can see how it would be quicker if you had no hold luggage as you can go directly to departures. The benefit was, we found, when we left Gran Canaria. The pre printed boarding card people had a dedicated desk and instead of taking 30mins to an hour to check in, it took us 5 minutes, as hardly anyone had checked in on line. I suppose this will all change when we all start to check in online.