<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">What hassle?
The minimum you need, according to NWA's most recent update, is just an itinerary with a ticket number. Anyone booking online automatically gets this info via e-mail or from an airline's website. Anf if you use a travel agent, the agent's itinerary confirmation is fine, too.
The only difference between pre-Sept. 11 and now is that you need an actual piece of paper to get through security whereas before you could check-in at the gate with just an ID.</font>
There's an additional requirement that you haven't mentioned: you also need to have a person at the security checkpoint that understands all of the other requirements.
This past week, what was referenced by the article happened to me: I was prevented from passing through security without a boarding pass, even though I had a printed e-ticket receipt. In my case, it was the one that the airline sent me in the mail, so it would be more difficult for someone to forge than just an email confirmation, but that's not really the issue.
Since I was on CO, it didn't take me even 60 seconds to use the kiosk at the ticket counter to get my boarding pass. There's rarely a line at these, even when the ticket counter line is long, so it's not really that much of a hassle, but it certainly would be if I was at an airport or airline without the kiosks.
The frustration is that we have security people that are not aware of what the real rules are, and I for one thought it was not the best of times to raise a stink at the security checkpoint regarding what the rules are. I suppose if I was in a position where I would have to unneccesarily wait in a long line because of this problem, I might politely ask for a supervisor.
It's a combination of all these little things that may work together to keep air travel from returning to normal, and that's why it worries me.