Zolex

Why can't laptops be employed for this purpose? A cellphone is nothing more than a small all-in-one computer

G-CIVC

Every international flight to the US has a certain number of pax selected randomly for SSSS. And SSSS is a TSA thing which has nothing to do with GE/travel ban/recent racial tensions etc (which has to do with CBP). Getting GE grants you PRE but they don't have anything to do with each other.

As for why you got SSSS, airline staff will tell you it's 'random', but I've heard it might also depend on your itinerary (e.g. I got it before when I have open jaws, stopovers, close-in reticketing...but correlation does not imply causation anyway). And as I said, when you arrive in the U.S. the border officer does not know that you got SSSSed.

Even in ports like NRT and HKG if your laptop didn't turn on while getting an SSSS, the security staff will also be likely to have confiscated it.

kq747

Just to clarify the OP's point, re Pre-check in the USA; if you are Pre-check approved, your laptop is not x-rayed separately as with all other passengers as you are considered not be as high a threat. The laptop is still x-rayed but is allowed to remain in the bag.

I do find it strange that the OP didn't know that the rule included laptops as I believe laptops are the main devices that the UK/USA (and other select countries I can't recall ATM) were concerned about when they instituted the rule and then also included tablets, phones, and other electronics. In any case pre-check or not, it is very clear that you must be able to power up your devices prior to boarding. I think they asked me to do it once even when I wasn't SSSS in the gate area in DXB when the rule was newer.

I don't have personal experience with having electronics confiscated but this definitely sounds like an issue to take up with HIA security and not Qatar Airways. Hopefully the OP finds a way to get it back soon.

Often1

Just a bit of misinformation can blow things out of proportion.

1. SSSS on international to the US is a DHS (not TSA) requirement which could be random or targeted. Overthinking why it happened to OP is a big waste of time. On any given international flight to the US, it will appear for as many as 15% of the passengers.

2. While it is uncommon for TSA to require that electronics be switched on at US checkpoints (and indeed they are rarely individually inspected at all), this is a common requirement for many countries and specific departure points, e.g., flights to the US.

3. When a device is inoperaple, it won't be boarded. Period. The carrier employees are always "devastated," "ashamed," "aghast" and the like. But, they are not. They know the rules and the rules are not theirs to make.

4. The finer points of the language barrier are also irrelevant. This wasn't the USA and it wasn't the UK. But, at least the security people tried to be helpful. While the problem with OP's laptop was not the power source, it often is and all some people need to do is plug it in.

4. As soon as the laptop became inop, the options became shipping the laptop home separately or sticking it in checked luggage. Each carries some risk or cost, but that is it.

Best steps now are to take a deep breath, calm down, understand that the OP tried to board a US-bound aircraft with an inoperable electronic device and was caught. That makes him the "bad" guy. So, now he understands what he did and what he is trying to do is figure out how to retrieve the device.

A starting point would be the Consulate. You will not be the first US-bound passenger to have been separated from a device and someone will know the # of the lost & found and how best to communicate what you want. Making arrangements for pickup may be time-consuming and costly, but at least you will know. I would strongly suggest staying away from any commentary about your views of US security requirements or anything else.

WorldLux

I know. Having pre-check does not imply that TSA won't be allowed to inspect your laptop if they think it's suspicious. This could very well be the case if just too many objects in your carry-on are overlapping, hence making the scans pretty much unreadable. Another case is of course if you get SSSS. And the SSSS can hit you by coincidence.

orbitmic

+1. The bottom line is that whilst the laptop confiscation is an obvious pain in the back, this was done entirely appropriately and entirely predictably. There was no way the OP was going to be allowed to take an electronic device that would not start, be he TSA pre-checked or a member of the royal family, and most obviously regardless of ethnicity, religion, countries visited, and what not (those rules largely predate Trump in any case)

jms_uk

But only when flying on certain airlines.

Ex-USA departure on QR won't give you that option even if you are Pre-Check approved.

orbitmic

Indeed, and more generally, I think that the whole TSA question is a red herring and should just be dropped from this discussion.

For non-US departures, TSA is only really relevant in the case of pre-clearance departures, and even then only in addition to and not instead of departure airport regulations. In all other cases, the US can also impose additional conditions within reason (ie as long as they do not violate their international agreements, for instance they couldn't impose that only US airlines can operate) but not through TSA, and again only in addition and not instead of departure country regulations.

In other words, the US has the right to make your life 'more' miserable when it comes to flying into the country, but never to make your life 'less' miserable. At the best of time, TSA pre-check can only ensure that that 'more miserable' will likely not happen but that's very much as far as it can go.

Zol

Moving to TS/S forum, kindly continue conversation there.

Blueskyheaven

I had SSSS when flying with my wife and 2 year. I has redress entered but still got SSS for flight to PHL from DOHA. The security agents knew and one even said SSSS but i just held my child and went under their machine like my wife did and no one said anything. There shouldn't be the 4 Ss in the beginning and I felt sick and awful when seeing that for 2nd time from on return trip.

GUWonder

The US DHS-TSA is relevant to flights from outside of the US to the US even at airports that don't have US CBP Pre-Clearance.

All international flights to the US are not subject to the SSSS practices the TSA wants and approves.

FlyingHoustonian

As others have noted SSSS happens outside the US on US bound flights. A few days ago I flew MEX to IAH with some of my employees and family, and I got my first SSSS in seven years; I have been GE since the program was in its test phase, have a high US gov't clearance, and am a very frequent flyer...it happens. A handful of others got it as well-benefit? I was first to board the plane ;-)

Powering on devices is a fairly common request at airports worldwide, maybe less so now than a couple of years ago, but still common enough. Expect to see it again.

Next time try IAH-MAN-SIN on SQ; the Brits sometimes ask for power-ups but at least there might not be a language barrier

cdn1

Why is it so hard for airport security these days with all these scanning machines to determine whether or not a laptop is actually a laptop, and not something else?

So the laptop is a security risk for the aircraft but not for the airport and all the people around that laptop at that time when its being examined at security check-point? They should be able to check it very quickly, if they got all these xray and other machines that can sniff out anything, yet they can't check a laptop for real components using these machines? It is 2017 and they can't verify a electronic device quickly ?

I just find this whole confiscation thing to be stupid.

Loren Pechtel

My wife routinely draws SSSS on PVG->America flights. It doesn't mean anything over there, though. (And it's really strange because she's liable to get Pre-Check on the outbound flight. All I can figure is I married Jekyll and Hyde.)

I haven't had to demonstrate things work this century. I do agree, though, that if it couldn't be demonstrated when asked that it wouldn't fly.

Loren Pechtel

Cell phones are routinely used because of their timers and remote capability. They contain nothing directly useful for detonating explosives, though.

Laptops, however, have a lot more space in them. A quick check with a calculator shows that I could pack half a pound of C4 in mine and leave it able to convince even a skilled operator that it is fully operational. That's a bit light for bringing down a plane, though.

If I didn't care about it working I'm sure I could get at least two pounds in place of parts I would have no difficulty removing (other than the mechanical issue that one of those parts comprises part of the exterior--I would have to remove the batteries from the sealed pack they are in.) and I suspect I could get that much again in against the circuitry.

I would have pulled the hard drive from the machine. Your files are there and it would fly even if the dead machine didn't. (Admittedly, though, I'm probably a lot more comfortable with the insides of a computer than you are and until I lost it to PVG security I even had a tool with me that would have let me pull a drive in a airport.)