As a follow-up... Got up this morning and made sure to give extra time for the extra screening. The whole enhanced screening process is a joke. TSA went through all of my stuff, but barely looked at any of my wife's electronics. Typical TSA. We did file a complaint and they will review the tapes. The TSA supervisor did admit they screwed up. We were very polite as totally agreed this is not the fault of any front-line TSA employee.
Originally Posted by
Often1
OP knew what the code meant. He, in fact, brought it to TSA's attention. TSA failed to "clear" the code and nothing short of a lengthy explanation on a smallish piece of paper would have solved the issue, e.g. "even if a TSA Officer tells you otherwise, you need to have your BP properly stamped before you will be permitted to board."
TSA screwed this one up. End of story.
Hopefully the Mods will move this out of the UA forum as it has zippo to do with UA.
I strongly disagree with this comment and hope this thread does not get moved. This is a TSA issue and a United issue. Yes, TSA screwed up, but United did as well. If I had not asked two separate United agents for guidance on the SSSS matter, this is only a TSA problem. The two United agents had no idea of what to do with SSSS. They were either not trained on SSSS or didn't care. The worst thing you can do is to give someone an answer that is based on no actual knowledge. All if you have to do, is tell the customer to wait while you call someone who knows the answer. This applies to any business.
As I have researched more on this matter, there have been a number of others who have had the same problem. And, clearly looking at the comments in this thread, there are some large misconceptions about SSSS. My wife and I didn't miss a funeral or our daughter's wedding. But what if someone else does? Granted, travel interruptions happen all the time due to all sorts of uncontrollable factors. In this case, one United employee just needed to make a call and ask a question. It would be very easy and within United's control to prevent this for happening again which I promise it will. Yet, I realize where I am and asking for this sort of basic customer service is asking for too much.
Thanks for the tips on the travel insurance aspect. I did book the tickets using a Chase United Club Card and have used the travel insurance through the card before. Good idea.
Hopefully this helps at least one future United passenger understand the SSSS process and avoid the same trap.