Recently a friend had a non-refundable ticket and was flying the same flight as I was. When she checked in, I noticed that she had been SSSS’d and I informed them that she would be “secondaried” at the checkpoint and what that would entail.
At the checkpoint she asked if she passed the screening and did not alarm would she still require a pat down. At first the screener would not say one way or the other but she refused to pass through or put bags on the x-ray belt until they confirmed or not. They finally admitted that she would be subjected to secondary regardless because of the random assignment. She picked up her stuff and left. She went to the airline counter and asked for a refund.
At first the airline pointed out that the ticket was non refundable and she responded that she did not agree to a body search as part of the contract of passage. After a few minutes with a supervisor she was refunded her monies.
The questions I have are:
1. If she had placed her belongings on the belt and passed through the metal detector and then refused screening could she still walk away?
2. Since she did receive her refund on a non-refundable ticket how is consent to search an implicit part of the contract of passage?