Practical Travel Safety Issues - Last Minute Tickets and Extra Screening

Does anyone know whether one still receive's extra screening (or a bunch of S's on one's boarding pass) for purchasing a one way last minute ticket? Do last minute changes count the same as purchasing a last minute ticket? Is it the same for every airline? How far in advanced is considered last minute?

I flew on one way tickets a few months ago that were purchased within the week before travel and did not experience and additional harassment from TSA. These were domestic flights on mainline legacy carriers.

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

I buy all my tickets as one ways, and never had an issue since 2003. I often book tickets day of departure or a day or two ahead and also don't have issues. Not sure how/if that'd affect me being selected for pre check or not...

Generally haven't had a problem with last-minute (24 hour) purchases or one-ways. But then again, I'm a pretty heavy traveler on the airlines where I do that.

The last time I can recall having the SSSS for "last minute" was 2004 where DL canceled a flight and moved me to AA, which treated it as a last-minute, cash purchase... resulting in an SSSS. My AA status didn't apply because they had to add my FF number at the gate.

+1 - This is the only time I've had this happen. So long as I am booked with a FF#, I've never experienced this. But, when I've been rebooked on another carrier in the situation where carrier #1 actually prints an old-fashioned paper ticket for me to take to carrier #2, it seems to be treated as cash (as opposed to CC) and that, coupled with the timing, seems to make the difference. Adding the FF# at that point doesn't seem to stop the process.

I thought they'd stopped writing SSSS on the boarding pass? I haven't seen one in ages.

I thought they'd stopped writing SSSS on the boarding pass? I haven't seen one in ages.

They still have them but I think they have a different criteria than last minute cash purchase for issuing them. I got one on a HKG-SFO BP a few months ago and I am a Global Entry member. It was the return trip of an itinerary that had been booked at least 6 months prior, paid with a CC and I have been 1K on United for ages. HKG security didn't care but at United's pre-board security, my hands and carryon were swapped and I had a patdown. While I was waiting to be escorted for the "special treatment", the gate agent told me that the SSSS was generated randomly and it could be for elite or non-elite passengers.

Wirelessly posted (Treo: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.7; en-us; NookColor Build/GRK39F) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

I was SSSSed on a GRU-DFW flight back in July, so it still happens. (And this was a DFW-EZE, GRU-DFW open-jaw purchased a couple of months in advance.)

They still have them but I think they have a different criteria than last minute cash purchase for issuing them. I got one on a HKG-SFO BP a few months ago and I am a Global Entry member. It was the return trip of an itinerary that had been booked at least 6 months prior, paid with a CC and I have been 1K on United for ages. HKG security didn't care but at United's pre-board security, my hands and carryon were swapped and I had a patdown. While I was waiting to be escorted for the "special treatment", the gate agent told me that the SSSS was generated randomly and it could be for elite or non-elite passengers.

Ironically, the last SSSS I received was last month from HKG to ORD. Global Services on United and similar to wilp888's experiences, purchased round-trip ticket about two months prior with the credit card on file with United.

I also fly all one ways. No SSSS since 2002

At least half of my tickets are same-day one-way ticket purchases; for the better part of the past ten years now, I've ordinarily gotten no extra "security" scrutiny at the airport because of same-day one-way ticket purchases.