Tafflyer

nick.t.davies

I've been SSSS'd quite a few times, but not consistently. All fairly painless, just make sure that all electronics are charged, I once had an iPad completely drained, but just plugged it into my laptop when they were inspecting it and no issues as it booted straight away.

dwugson

Seem to get SSSS with some regularity and unfortunately also travel with multiple cameras and other electronics which I can't check in. Not a big deal, I wouldn't worry about it. Usually they just swab all the electronics and my hands while asking a few questions. Nothing very intrusive just part of the hassle of travel in this day and age.

alextheengineer

I seem to get it every time I fly to or within the US. Apparently last minute bookings trigger it, and given that I fly standby even though I might have listed months in advance the fact that I’m only onloaded at the close of check in seems to give me a 100% hit-rate.

I’ve never had anything to worry about except the odd run to the gate afterwards. One memorable occasion where AA started (aggressively) calling me by name through the whole of the terminal as I sprinted, belt and iPad still in hand, onto my flight.

Often1

Do not confuse this with the "SSSS" designation on US domestic-only tickets, where the designation is far rarer and does not affect the gate.

Approximately 15% of US-bound passengers receive the designation and while there may be some factors, e.g. recent lengthy trip to North Korea, which may guarantee this, arranging your travel around this is not worth the effort nor is trying to reverse engineer the factors. The best you can do is have electronics and cables on top of carry-on so that they can easily be presented and that is about it. Given that it is at most a 2-3 minute detour, spending more time than that is not worth it.

dougzz

Happened to me in MAN last summer. Only concern was the insistence at pulling at a part of my MS Surface tablet that's fixed, and despite repeatedly being told they were trying to lever the case they continued until I asked them to stop before they broke it, unlikely but just so unnecessary. I had the Surface, an iPad and Kindle along with 2 phones, but that's hardly unusual these days.
It's not stressful, just that normal suspicion that the people assigned this task are employed down to a price rather than up to a standard, rendering the whole thing pointless.

Duck1981

My wife got recently SSSS re/ an UA flight from LHR to Newark. Could not print BP at home for her - in the end no fuss at all, just an additional swipe of clothes/ hands/ bag at the gate area.
No questions, 2 minutes.

I think she has enjoyed her preferential treatment

chistery

I got it today too. You get to board first at least.

However we’re now an hour delayed due to a pax injuring themselves on boarding and waiting for an ambulance. No eta.

HomerJay

Happened to me two months ago - YAM-YTZ-IAD. They did the SSSS at Billy Bishop in Toronto, after meeting me getting off the YAM-YTZ flight. A young woman escorted me from the jetway through a hallway and up an escalator to the area just inside the security checkpoint. A young man asked me if I would prefer to have my patdown in a private room or out there in public. It seemed to me like he was hoping I'd say let's go to the private room, but I said, "let's git 'r done. We can do it right here." And so we did.

YMMV, but my choice is to have these things done in public, because they may go faster for any number of reasons.

He performed a cursory check of my luggage, did a full patdown, and was able to determine my religion, so to speak. During the patdown, he asked me a question or two about my flight origin and destination, and I resisted the urge to make any smart aleck comment about not wanting a happy ending. Discretion, you see, is the better part of a full body cavity search. When he finished, I thanked him and headed downstairs to the Porter lounge to wait for our YTZ-IAD connection, which, of course, was an hour late.

mikeyfly

Happened to me last Weds at T3 - Gate 24.

Process reasonably painless as had offloaded most hand baggage. Was then informed of an hour delay, so was allowed back to the lounge. On returning was let straight back in to usual area. Slightly against the idea of the process surely, as had mingled with everyone else back in the terminal.

Skyline

My 13 year old son had the SSSS on his boarding pass; having experienced this before, we assured him it would be painless, and it was. We mentioned we had the SSSS on a boarding pass at the gate and were directed to a secondary screener down the escalator just before the air-bridge. Mum was allowed to be next to him, but I was told to wait away from them. He took his shoes off and showed them his Ipod. He was swabbed and then allowed to board. I think the actual screening is pretty subjective and completely random (although I was told at check-in, if your names matches someone on the no-fly list, you may receive more screening)

TPRun

2 out of 4 (all on same booking) of us had SSSS from T3 LHR on BA to Las Vegas - pat down and wipe of phones/iPad/carry ons.
I don't put it down to anything...other than we're 4 brown people travelling to the US

Oxnardjan

DH got the dreaded SSSS inspection on our flight back from YVR to LAX. Our luggage from full of dirty laundry. The TSA guy poked a stick in the mess of clothes and checked his eclectronics. I don't remember a pat down. More of an annoyance than anything. The only issue we had with TSA was when a male TSA worker wanted to take our 17 year old daughter to a secondary inspection area at the gate. My DH said he was going with her and they said NO! DH told the TSA guy that she was a minor and this was not acceptable, they let my husband accompany her to the inspection and it was very quick.

gustavmahler

I got it just before Christmas, flying to MIA. Thanks to advice here, I left almost all my hand luggage with my wife and so the process was very quick. It just involved swabs of my shoes, hands, bag etc. at the gate. Took about a minute.

corporate-wage-slave

Just so that no-one gets too alarmed here, though I'm only repeating a point already made. That may have started from Canada, but that is effectively a domestic USA flight, and therefore their version of SSSS applies. Their selection criteria and mode of search is completely different to Europe, where the agreement with the Commission was that it was a randomised, at the gate based check for explosives, electronics and a verbal screen. It can be carried out by contractors. A high percentage of a passengers will be screened, 5% to 25% on any given flight.

The USA version is done at initial security as you enter the airport, and requires the TSA (or the local agency, some airports don't use TSA) to do a personal search and enhanced manual check of baggage. It doesn't include a verbal screen and it's not systematically an electronics screen either. After the USA version the boarding pass is cleared down to allow boarding (this must be done or you are going nowhere, and may well include connecting domestic sectors). The percentage involved is far lower, but it's not entirely randomised. Some people will get it on every flight if the DHS database so requires.