The dreaded "SSSS"
 

So last week I go for online checkin, get to the last screen, and it says it can't print out a boarding pass. CO.online says to use a kiosk to "reprint" at the airport. So I call 800-Plat, and they confirm I'm checked in, but can't say why it wouldn't print.

Ut Oh ... I'll bet I know what's comming :td: Yes, I did change the itinerary a few days ago.

So I bring along some KY Jelly to make the experience less painful (the self-warming type) and off I go to EWR.

Sure enough, the kiosk prints "SSSS". :td: :td: So I go to the Elite security line, where there is still always a 5 - 7 minute wait. The first ticket/ID checker takes me directly to an EMPTY security lane on the far left, that is not being used by normal passengers. Out comes the laptop, off with the shoes, thru the X-ray & magnetometer as usual. Then a full body frisk, but no cavity search :) . They swiped my bags for nitrates (fortunately I haven't been to the range this week) and I was on my way even faster than usual, plus personalized friendly service. The SSSS TSA'ers were not overworked, less stressed than the usual group.

Faster is good. Overall, not a bad experience.

What have been your experiences with :confused: SSSS ??

Lol!!!
 

So I bring along some KY Jelly to make the experience less painful (the self-warming type)

That is a real hoot.

Actually it is sometimes faster to go through SSSS as the line is usually shorter.

I know what you mean, I used to use the same bag and always had to double check all the nooks to make sure nothing got left in the bag. Finally I just made sure I used one for the range and another for travel. I still occasionally go through the whole bag just in case ;)

Has the TSA ordered the airlines to not tell pax why certain check-ins require more scrutiny? If so, I think this is a total crock because security through obscurity is stupid and does not enhance security.

Similar experience, due to t-storms AA flight to Toronto was cancelled from LGA, next flight in two days, so they booked me on CO the next morning. Was on a one- way ticket, and didn't have time to put in NW silver elite #,so got ssssed. The guy searched me very quickly (but thoroughly), I had no problems with anything they did; was on my way just as fast as without the ssss. (Although I'm not implying I want to experience this again.)

During my last SSSS at DCA, the secondary screener slowly went through my belongings and left for an undisclosed reason, telling me he'd be right back. After five minutes, I asked another screener what was going on, who then conferred with a manager. That took another four or five minutes. They located the original screener and told me I could go. The screener simply had gone back to work in the metal detector line and never told me I was free to go even though he had finished examining my bag. :rolleyes:

"please unbuckle your pants" Uhhhh....
Actually it was because i had a belt on that kept setting the metal detector off.

I've only been SSSS a couple of times but I usually made it in faster through the line in SFO

Elite number wouldn't have mattered. These rebookings onto another airline always look to the system as a last minute, one-way cash purchase, thus a guaranteed SSSS.

Same thing happened to me last Thursday for a Friday flight. I never saw that message before. I knew what was coming but still was annoyed. When I called the Platt line on Friday the agent read a new memo to me stating that a large number of Elite's were S'ed due to a computer glitch, and they were working on fixing the problem.

It sounds like either a genuine computer glitch or an excuse for a dragnet by the TSA.

I was waiting for this thread to be created. ^

You bring up a good question..what is the computer interface between TSA and CO ? Does CO make the decision about SSSS thresholds, or just implement a TSA directive - such as "hassle all tickets purchased or modified within 48 hours of flight time" ?


You are welcome!

It has changed since its inception. Used to be a given if a onw way, paid cash, mixed carriers on same itin, done in < 24 hours....

I have several of those recently and no SSSS. I had a OW ticket out of the US, it was paid in caah in India, and was not flagged. I have had same day reservations and not gotten SSSS. But then again in the same time frame I've been re-routed due to a cancellation and gotten the SSSS.

We'll never know for sure.

There is no TSA interface that makes the selection. Don't listen to airline agents who tell you the government/tsa selected you, as that is hogwash. The TSA provided the airlines with a list of criteria that outline 'suspicious behavior' (which in itself is more hogwash) and expect the airlines to integrate these criteria into their PNR analysis and do the selections themselves...the criteria that either will or may flag you for SSSS include,

* last minute ticket purchase - this includes being rebooked or "FIMed" on another airline, even on the same E-ticket, as the other airline will see you as a last minute purchase and flag your boarding pass

* cash/check paid ticket. Ticket purchased by another individual.

* one-way itinerary or a series of one-ways (Hawaiian Airlines is notorious for flagging anyone not flying A-B-A on a single ticket as one of these, and handing out *S* like candy at Halloween)

* last minute seat changes (this one is less often used now, but it used to be a biggie over at AA)

* last minute itinerary changes, segment add/delete, re-route

* flying outside normal tracked behavior might increase your chances of getting flagged - for example, if you fly IAH-SAT-IAH every weekend for weeks or months on end, then all of a sudden buy a ticket IAH-EWR-DEL, then you might get snagged. This is one of the more grey areas of the selection process and is up to the airlines to decide when and who to flag.

* flying on the same flight as someone on a watch list if you have flown with that person in the past (knowing or unknowingly), especially if you move your seat near or next to that person (knowing or unknowingly).

* being seated next to or near someone on a watch list - the airline might tag everyone sitting in the same row or within a range of seats to check for potential accomplices.

For those who blow a fuse at my posting all these 'secret' details (oooooh scary), which I do with complete bliss, go sit down, have some tea and take a chill pill.

If you're an Elite member with an established relationship on your airline, such as CO in this case, your chance of getting flagged by your own airline is very low. CO is excellent at keeping us Elites away from the SSSS nonsense. Delta and NW are not as good.

If you are a CO Plat, but tried your described itinerary on Delta or United, I am pretty positive you would have been flagged.

This is true. The TSA agent that shook me down couldn't believe that I was a CO Platt Elite. He said that I must have really done something egregious to deserve the mark of the S, since he rarely sees CO Elites get tagged. Still shaken by the invasive search, I wobbled over to a bench and called CO, since I was flying within my normal parameters. I let the agent know that we may have a mutual business concern if their unwarranted treats of serendipity at my expense continued. :eek:

For me, modifying something within 48 hours, or flying to DCA is basically an automatic SSSS; but I might be a special case (see below). I sure as h*ll hope that CO isn't doing this of its own volition; but rather upon orders.


Not at least as of a couple of years ago. That's how I found out I was on the TSA Watch List.

I kept getting "SSSS'ed" and was getting aggravated about it. One time, yet again, I could not use the machine and was checking in with an agent, and she said "You probably know this; but you're one of the lucky ones." I said, "No, I don't know what you mean." And she told me I was on the watch list, and explained how she had to enter my data twice. It was like that for a few months. Always a human to check in, always they had to enter my data on more screens, almost always SSSS.

It has gotten easier now that they have enabled OLCI for people like me (but sometimes I still get denied and have to go to a human or a kiosk). I also don't usually get "SSSS" anymore. Still do occassionally.

I can't figure it out. It seems random. Perhaps that's by design. Maybe I have been taken off the list, or maybe it is just (generally) becoming more subtle.

Several times in the past year or so I've booked one-way flights out and back to a destination, usually to take advantage of either weird intineraries I needed to maintain or because it was blatantly cheaper to do so. Every time, I've been flagged SSSS on the flight out, (from EWR or JFK,) but never on the way back. Is it possible the TSA realizes that, since I made the first flight without incident, I'm not likely to be a threat on the way back? Or, is this just a coincidence?

Incidentally, the "full-service" security line at EWR is typically much much shorter than the regular line, and the TSA staff there are quite friendly.

The TSA doesn't realize anything (whoa, that was an understatement), as the selection process is executed solely by the airlines - unless forced on them by a customer's presence on a watch or prohibited list.

Wonderful sense of humor :D ^

Agree with the staff being friendly and professional and the shorter lines at the "full-service" line :D

deleted

I had the SSSS flying out of ORD last week. Walked through the metal dectector grabed my shoes and bag from xray and was on my way. No "full-service" -- no checking under the hood, no cleaning of the windows-- at all.

Purchasing DL Shuttle one-way tickets used to guarantee an SSSS. Now it seems to happen only 75% of the time.

This may have been discussed in other SSSS threads, but I can't remember the answer. What happens if you are rerouted on another carrier that operates from the same concourse/terminal/airside area as your original carrier but the last minute rebooking causes you to be SSSS'd? For example, your flight is cancelled due to a mechanical and the customer service desk signs your ticket over to AA, which has its gates and a service center in the same concourse. You go over to the AA service desk or gate to get boarding passes and they have an SSSS - do they make you exit the concourse and reclear security?

The airlines can also deselect from you from the "harassment". I just recently took an earlier UA flight and my new boarding pass had the SSSS marks. Quite a few key strokes later I did have a new boarding pass without the SSSS marks.

Depends on the agent - and the majority of them will not only play dumb about it, they will either blame transfer back to the TSA or suggest you're Osama's cousin for even suggesting such a thing.

So far agents at DL, HA and US have either flat out refused to remove SSSS, pled ignorance or just outright lied to me. I even had one dumb DL agent keep asking me what it was, then he finally asked me how I even knew what it meant and suggested I shouldn't know such things. I wanted to throw a vial of holy water on that one :rolleyes:

I am not Omasa's cousins unfortunately. (I would love to because they are one of the most $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ people around).

On my case the SSSS was printed at the gate on my earlier flight. I was already "screened" by the TSA. (Whatever it is worth)

I have bought several last-munite tickets with CO and rarely gotten the dreaded SSSSSS. However, sometimes I must commit self-torture and fly WN, and when I buy a last-minute with them, it's always SSSSSS.

Luckily, the El Paso Airport security is never more than a 5 minute wait, and I'm through with the whole procedure in no more than 5 minutes flat.

Flying XNA-EWR-MHT I got to EWR and all the MHT flights were cancelled or full, I went outside security to Pax ReAccommodation and asked to get rebooked into BOS, the agent quickly snapped back, "how are you going to get from BOS to MHT??" In his stare all I could see was SSSS, sure enough there it was, of course I didn't have it on my first leg. I must say, however, EWR's SSSS procedures in Concourse A are quite tolerable with the oversized hairdryer you have to walk through, all the frisking is skipped. Although I was expecting to be taken out for breakfast after my last rub-down at MSY.

Intersting, I had something similar recently.

I was returning, SFO-MSP-DTW-PHL. Had an awful DTW layover, like 8 hours (freebie, that's all was available for the three of us). When I checked in SFO I asked to get on an earlier flight. I was easily accomodated on a much better PHL flight. I didn't notice, but all BP's were ok except the last leg, which was SSSS's. When I checked in for the PHL flight the BP was scanned and the reader started chirping away, that's when I noticed the SSSS. The agent said hold on, tappytaptap, ok go ahead.

Sorta silly to SSSS a BP in mid-trip w/in the US.

Not true.

If you get your FF# into the rebooked reservation before it is ticketed, it is unlikely to bear the mark of haraSSSSment.

I file a complaint each and every time I see my boarding pass besmirched with letters of haraSSSSment. It's disgusting, un-American haraSSSSment that no one should ever have to endure. :td:

Always try to get rebooked inside "security".

The chances of being marked for haraSSSSment are very low.

Frisk Free
 

As a ten year plat (actually, Gold before there was Plat) who formerly held a security clearance, do you think the travel industry should offer me a "good guy" get out of jail (frisk) free card ?

At Orlando I see they have some sort of similar program with biometric measuring, I think it's a retina scan, that puts you up at the front of the x-ray line. So these guys still get searched. Wonder if they ever get "SSSS" ?

No one should ever be haraSSSSed, whether they have a security clearance or whether they're here on vacation from Saudi Arabia.

Supposedly Orlando's Extorted Traveler program exempts one from haraSSSSment. I'll never surrender my money and biometrics for what should be the norm, not the exception.