TPE & US-Bound Security Screening
 

Hi all! Has anyone flown any US-bound routes from Taipei within the past few years? I am just curious about whether there's a separate interview & bag check (pre-flight screening) for US-bound flights even for those without the quad S. I'm planning to do SIN-TPE-SFO, and some said if you check in on TPE, there will be a security agent interviewing you. I am not sure about connecting flights. I do have PreCheck on me.

So far, my experience is:
ICN-SEA, 2017, KE, connecting from SIN-ICN: nothing
ICN-HNL, 2019, KE, connecting from HKG-ICN: interviewed during transit, nothing too intrusive, interviewed again at boarding gate, and then I was sent to secondary and have my bag checked by a non-speaking English agent which took around 2 minutes (no SSSS, selected purely at random because my other travel party did not get such a thing)
HND-LAX, 2023, JL, connecting from SIN-HND: nothing

I am not quite sure about TPE, but my friend took CI and was going TPE-LAX in 2023 and according to her, she did not experience pre-flight screening whatsoever. I might be wrong, and since I am new to Flyertalk, I'd appreciate some insights. Thank you!

After you check in at TPE with bags, you go to the end of the check-in counter to watch for your bag to pass on a video screen. If they have to open it you will see your bag pulled. Otherwise, after your bag passes, you proceed to immigration. All bags are checked regardless of destination. Nothing special if you are traveling to the US.

Umm....I'm afraid this isn't the answer I was precisely looking: I will be just transiting in TPE on a single-ticket itinerary. Perhaps my long explanation distorted my actual question and I didn't do a great job summarizing it, so my apologies. What I'm actually asking is whether you will still get interviewed by a security officer prior to your US-bound flight, and whether there will still be a random bag check or extra-interview prior to boarding, even for passengers who do not have the dreaded SSSS.

The reason I asked this is because on my previous flight through ICN, I got interviewed on the transit area prior to boarding my HNL flight, and was sent to secondary inspection even though I did not get any SSSS whatsoever. On my previous flight through HND to LAX, however, I boarded as normal and nobody asked a thing. I'm not sure whether TPE is like ICN or HND in this case; and that's what I wanted to ask.

If I'm asking this to the wrong subforum, I apologize.

I've had this happen at TPE once last year. Also happened to my travel companion at NRT. No SSSS in the BP. IIRC, there was no interview, just a bag inspection right before the boarding.

Traveling to the US you will go through transit security at TPE. Normal airport screening, no liquids allowed. There is random additional screening at the gate after your present your BP and before you enter the jetway. In recent years I've not seen anyone get a security interview as such, the random bag check is done on a table as you board the plane. I have also not seen many people selected for this, but it does happen. When it happened to me they took 20-30 seconds for a cursory peek inside my computer bag and that was it.

Last month there was an additional passport check as you entered the gate area before you go down to the lobby seating area which was new and seemed redundant, but as far as I could tell they were checking passports and names. Maybe they were looking for someone.

Hope this answers your question.

Thanks! This is the answer I was looking for. So the key here is "random" - and perhaps the one thing that made me got randomly checked at ICN last time was perhaps because I looked Korean and they thought I should be able to speak Korean, plus I looked 100% nervous and confused when the Korean staff tried to speak broken English to me. On my other returning US trips, I had nobody check my bag or ask me, and I was even allowed to keep my laptop and shoes in HND. Those picked for a random interview and bag check are generally informed a few minutes before pre-boarding starts.

I think I will be fine with TPE, as long as there's no quad S in my boarding pass.

At ICN I was the only one on my travel party to get my small bag searched, perhaps because I looked nervous due to the security staff's poor English (initially, she insisted in speaking Korean even when I have indicated I did not understand).

What I definitely know is that when I arrived at TPE from SFO, I did not have to pass transit security whatsoever.

Honestly, I feel it was random and I didn't really mind as it took maybe a minute or so. Yeah, it seems flights from the US get to bypass transit security at some airports. I've also experienced this at HND, & NRT.

The Japanese authorities allow transit passengers arriving from the U.S. to bypass security screening at certain airports. This is a unilateral move as the American side does not reciprocate. The process is called One Stop Security--the country hosting the connecting airport treats security at the airport of initial departure as equivalent to their own, and doesn't require rescreening.

Tbh security in Japan has been pretty similar to TSA PreCheck. Shoes on (except in some cases closed-toes), laptops stay in your bag. The staff at HND and NRT has been very friendly, pretty much like DFW and LAX TSA in my experience. SFO was the rudest; okay, I know I made a noobie mistake and I should have kept my TSA PreCheck card instead of leaving it in the bin (it was my second flight ever as a TSA PreCheck holder), but there's no need to be sarcastic and rude, oh officer....

But it's ok. Only adds 2 minutes of me taking my laptop and shoes off and going to the enhanced X-Ray machine.

I'm not sure about TPE, whether it's similar to TSA PreCheck and Japan, or whether you do need to take your laptop out and shoes off.

Just arrived from my SIN-TPE-SFO, and yes, both yannix and uanj were right; there was an additional passport check and just the standard interview questions of whether the bag is packed by you and whether it has any dangerous items. No bag inspection for me; I saw many people being selected for extra pat-downs and bag inspections; probably most of them had the quad S and boarded early.

Transit security at TPE was a breeze, just like PreCheck, and it meant I had enough time at the lounge. Flight went peaceful until at SFO where I had a miscommunication and misunderstanding due to a conflicting information provided by the crews and the ground staff/security at SFO instructing me not to get back on the plane once I deboarded while the crew instructed me to "wait at the exit" in Mandarin - because at that time I wanted to take pics with them as the flight (JX) was THAT GOOD. Luckily while I did get a bit close, I didn't step my foot back in; otherwise I would have been the bad guy, and they would have known me, strip me off my PreCheck and GE, and put me in the SSSS/no-fly list (okay this might be a bit overboard). Even the pilots were perplexed as to why - but I, the ground security, and the crews, worked on a win-win solution.

EDIT: At that time I had no idea that the crew's authority stopped at the door. SFO's security wasn't wrong at all counts, and that makes this partly my fault.