TSA "random check" in ZRH
 

Hi all,
Hope not to be re-posting,

Yesterday before boarding LX40, when I presented my passport agents to the gate, a beep went off and they asked where my journey originated (answer: Berlin). I am traveling on a US passport. They asked me if the agents in Berlin told me I had been selected for a "random" TSA screening (they hadn't), and then circled a line on the boarding pass "SSSS" meaning to perform this inspection.

I was running late and let to a little cubicle next to the gate where two Swiss security agents rummaged through my bags with gloves on, just touching things, not looking for anything particular.

Has this happened to anyone before? I am used to extra checkpoints in Munich when headed to the States but this had never happened before...

Yes, it has happened before to many thousands of people; nothing unusual about it at all unless it happens with regularity on your trips to, inside of, and exiting the US.

You were simply selected, whether randomly or due to some particular information about you, for secondary security screening.

You got an SSSS, been there done that in ZHR. The biggest PITA is that it nullifies any onward PreCheck in the States.

If this happens on your next journey to the States, you've wended your way onto some list. If it doesn't, it was simply a random selection. It happens.

I fly several times a year from ZRH to JFK, out of 20 or so trips, I had SSSS on my bp ONCE--it is (in general) RANDOM. They send you to a special cubical for further "checking"; they (at least AA has) a list of names of those selected which they check-off (it looked like there were 15 names).
Even though ZRH has NO TSA, my bps from ZRH to JFK have TSA PRE-CHECK on them.