Hi everyone--I have a question about ICTS sticker colours. These are the little stickers they put at the back of your passport cover if you are traveling to the US on one of the American carriers.

I recently accompanied my elderly parents to LHR for their UA flight back home after visiting me in London where live. The ICTS agent (who I originally thought was a UA employee) asked some questions about packing your own bags, etc and then put a brown sticker on the back of each of their US passports. Then I asked the agent if there were special services that could help bring my parents to their gate since they don't understand that much English and also have a hard time walking. He said that you have to have booked a wheelchair. Fine. He then proceeded to put two blue stickers on the back of each passport, covering up the brown sticker he had originally put on.

After they landed, my parents relayed to me that they were led to special rooms for interrogation and deep searches of their carry on luggage and frisking at TWO different checkpoints before they were allowed on the plane. I believe it is because of the blue stickers that were placed on their passports. When the agent first put them on I naively thought he was flagging them as passengers who needed special assistance.

My parents were very upset over this special treatment (although I explained that brown people face this every day, so this one time they happened to get flagged was bad luck and they shouldn't be upset since this was just one flight and not an everyday occurrence for them. But their yellow privilege was bruised nonetheless).

So my questions for you guys are as follows:
Who are these ICTS people? Do they work for the airport or for the airline? Does BA also employ them or is it just the US carriers? Why can't the people at the check in counter or bag drop counter ask these questions instead?

Also, I have not been able to find documentation anywhere about what the different colored stickers mean. And there were a few travel forums where it is mentioned, but people who have asked the ICTS agents are typically told off by them.


Thanks in advance!