boybi

When will a passenger know if he's SSSS?

percysmith

Bottom right corner of boarding pass (why does DHS let airlines print it out? If I were IS I'd simply not board and buy another passport?)

QRC3288

I can't find it, but I recall reading a very logical explanation of why the entire SSSS thing is idiotic....essentially doing nothing except increase costs and burden travelers who don't deserve it. But the general gist is it's just another thing Americans accept as part of life which is actually doing nothing to help security, and by being such a farse and inconvenience actually making things worse. One of the points brought up was obviously if you're a terrorist and you see SSSS printed boldly on your BP you simply go home. One of the authors tried this and nothing happened, aka it's not like if you skip the flight and the FBI comes to your house. Apparently thousands of travelers across America each and every day get this dreaded SSSS so it's fairly "normal" in the grand scheme of things. There was some comparison to relatively intrusive and invasive profiling, searches etc in Israel airports vs American ones. Damn I wish I could find it. Basically my recollection was American security is prevalent, annoying, extremely expensive, and overall pretty much useless. The Israeli stuff was similar in every regard except it was actually useful.

Anyway......sucks for us American bound travelers on CX now.
​

andersonCooper

Even within the U.S. it's hard to travel. Sometimes Precheck line is longer than normal; a lot of my foreign coworkers can't apply for GE or TSA Pre and have to suffer for long lines every week.

My domestic trip from JFK, the lady before me was SSSS and somehow my bag got flagged as well. Multiple TSA staff and their supervisors were arguing whether she should go to a separate room, and then decided to check it right at security, and going back and forth, pointing figures on each other on the long line behind. I waited for 45 minutes and they spent less than 1 minute searching my bag. Talking about useless and expensive here.

My trip earlier this week was the first time I took my luggage to HKIA, and boarding from KL Station there was no seats at all. The trip was ok/tolerable. One thing I have some doubt - based on CX's statement, looks like counters on Aisle B are for US bound travelers, but I am not sure if CX has status line for MPC/OW/Cabin pax on B (First/DM are on C IIRC).

HKGglobaltrotter

I remember years ago when I flew from South America back to US, they asked these types of security questions before one is allowed to check in. It was utterly stupid, useless and time wasting. I read somewhere online last week that this 'new screening procedure' will be implemented across all flights from Asia to US from Oct 26 (at least on all US carriers initially with foreign carriers to follow). Looks like CX is one that opts to comply right away. The article I read stated that Korean Air and Asiana are applying for extension to comply with these new procedures at ICN.

G-CIVC

Well it's plain awkward to try to 'interrogate' in Cantonese, the security agent was probably insecure himself...

I got asked really random questions (i think there was no script)
1) where is your final destination
2) how did you book your flight? care to show your itinerary?
3) why are you flying first class? (guan nei X si meh)
4) how many times have you made this trip?
5) what is your purpose of visiting US?

ended up not being able to board first.........

(This was done at the gate before the 2nd security theater. Was told it was a new procedure, so probably its now evolving into questioning at check in. But I'm not sure, so AVSECO agents will be present at zone B? Or the lovely ladies are going to do the questioning? I just cant envision this happening)

oliver_dvs

Classic security theatre.

andersonCooper

on the highlighted. Were the questions coming from the HKIA security folks (in black jacket, similar to those who search your bag), or CX staff (red/white for ladies and gold for gentlemen)?

This sounds worse than SSSS. When I told them I was SSSS, I was quickly escorted to the front of the line and completed the entire search within 3 mins - for a non-status pax it's definitely a win by cutting the line

LoveHateRelationship

Kind of reminds me of this

Expat_852

Seems is linked to this:

Airlines get ready for new U.S. security rules from Thursday

"to comply with government requirements designed to avoid an in-cabin ban on laptops"

"will affect 325,000 airline passengers on about 2,000 commercial flights arriving daily in the United States, on 180 airlines from 280 airports in 105 countries"

"Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said it would suspend in-town check-in and self bag-drop services for passengers booked on direct flights to the United States. The airline said passengers would also have short security interviews and it has advised travelers to arrive three hours before departure."

QRC3288

you've gotta love this logic. In order to "avoid an in-cabin ban on laptops"....

...

when just last week, the FAA says even a single laptop in the luggage compartment are a potentially catastrophic hazard, and laptops should be banned from the cargo hold.

@:-)@:-)@:-)@:-)America

jagmeets

I get SSSSd almost always (weird itineraries/last minute changes/name/skin etc- who knows).
Always quick, polite and efficient at HKG. Especially after they see the DM tag (I swear!)
Earlier this year, I had SSSS on my HKG-JFK bp for CX888. Got op-uped at the gate and the new bp didn't have the SSSS. Thought that was weird till I realised, on board, that the new bp was just for HKG-YVR. The gate agents at YVR were a bit confused by my request/explanation when asking for anew bp - thankfully the onward leg was in the upgraded class as well. Where it got interesting was when I told the YVR security lady at the XRay 'think you need to do more as I have a SSSS'- she seemed quite confused for 30seconds odd till a 'ahhhh quad-S' and waved me towards her colleague giving him and me a thumbs up (!) and a 'hey- gotta quad-S'. The chap couldn't have been more cheerful and I think I was through quicker than the other, non-SSSS passengers!

Might be wrong but hrecall reading somewhere that there's 'quotas' to be met, and 888, being among the last flights of the day tends to have an abnormally high number of SSSS'.

'Sham', comes to mind.

dylanks

fwiw, most Americans including me find this approach to security theater to be idiotic at best for the many reasons already stated, and it gets worse regardless of who gets elected (at least for the last 5 presidents). And 9/11 pretty much ended our means to protest such idiocracy.

Even with global entry I sometimes get SSSS.

ctownflyer

So only CX is implementing this?
Seems like a big disadvantage compared to the other carriers.

nightkhan

No, this affects all US bound flights internationally:

https://thepointsguy.com/2017/10/us-...curity-oct-26/