You are correct Tom, that when they re-book you on another airline the SSSS do show up since it is a one-way on that airline. I have always been lucky enough when that happened that I was at an airport where you did not have to exit security to get to the other airline.

On the islands and on most discount carriers... but I think the majority of legacy carriers (Delta's plan not withstanding) still kill you for booking a one way fare. For example, Northwest requires a B fare to book one way from SIN-SFO, which is more expensive than their discount roundtrip tix.

If you were to believe or assume for a minute that SSSS does help up with safety, then NOBODY is going to tell you why you were selected. That makes perfectly good sense.

On the other hand, this whole SSSS thing does NOT make us safer, so the real question you should be asking is WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

And why do most intelligent people realize this is a waste?

* We give advance notice that you are going to be patted down, etc. Therefore, if you are a bad guy you can skip the flight, or give you bad stuff to another traveler, or one of many other ways to get stuff through

* Most people know how most of these SSSS things happen as mentioned above, with one way and cash tickets being the big ones. So, do you really thing a bad buy would buy a one way or cash ticket anymore?

As to "looking funny" - America looks funny to the rest of the world for our foolishness. There is just a lack of brass bal _s in Washington to stand up and admit how foolish we are.