S- before name in the boarding pass?
 

My flight from LAX to MEM had S- before my last name. Normally the name on the boarding pass apprears like this:

LASTNAME/FIRSTNAME

but what I got was

S-LASTNAME/FIRSTINITIAL

and I didn't get the mileage credit for the flight but I got credit for a connecting flight after that flight that didn't have "S-" on the boarding pass. I got an upgrade by standing by on the flight that has S- and they changed my boarding pass a few seconds before I boarded.

Thanks for any comment.

The -S is what they use for standby. The -S is just characters used in the PAR's system

Actually it has to do with security.

In PARS (Passenger/Airline Reservation System) we use -S/LASTNAME/FIRSTNAME as an entry for standby staff travel, but it doesn't appear on the boarding pass like that.

I had those S-s on the outbound bording passes of my trip last week from IND-MEM-LFT, but not on the return this week. Both trips were on Wednesdays. I wondered about it when I saw the "S-", and I received my mileage (and double MEM mileage) for the entire trip.

PS- I was not flying standby


(edited to add post script)

[This message has been edited by InIndiana (edited 08-26-2001).]

S = "Selectee"

Its a bad thing.

I'm afraid I don't understand your response. Could you clarify?

I quote from http://www.usccr.gov/misac2/app.htm dealing with the Computer Assisted Passenger Screening process (CAPS).



Overview of the CAPS System

The purpose of screening passengers at domestic airports, as described by the White House Commission and the FAA, is to identify a small percentage of passengers to whom a heightened security measure should be applied. The White House Commission explained: “Based on readily-available information, passengers could be separated into a very large majority about whom we know enough to conclude that they present little or no risk, and a small minority about whom we do not know enough and who merit additional attention.” With regard to that small minority, neither CAPS nor the FAA’s existing manual screening system is designed or intended to identify persons who in any sense are likely terrorists. Clearly, on any one day, it is highly probable that all the selectees will be individuals with no connection to terrorism. Notwithstanding that fact, it is the judgment of the White House Commission and the FAA that the terrorist threat is sufficiently great, and the consequences of airline terrorism so horrendous, that security measures that cannot practically be applied to all passengers flying out of U.S. airports on domestic airlines should be applied to a portion of the passenger population. Passenger screening shrinks the number of passengers to whom an additional security measure is to be applied to a manageable size based on an intelligence judgment as to where in the sea of passengers a terrorist could be waiting.

As is true for other FAA security measures implemented at U.S. airports, responsibility for implementing CAPS will rest with U.S. air carriers, and CAPS will operate on the air carriers’ computer reservation systems. Except for one limited category of domestic air carriers, CAPS will apply to passengers traveling on all U.S. air carriers departing on domestic flights from American airports. The exception will be those few domestic air carriers that do not utilize a computer reservation system to which CAPS can be appended; for these carriers, the FAA may require the continued use of a manual screening system. The FAA’s present intent is that CAPS also will operate on a portion of the international flights by U.S. air carriers outbound from the United States; however, at least at this time CAPS will not apply to international flights by U.S. air carriers to the United States. CAPS will not apply to foreign air carriers flying from or to the United States.

Like the FAA’s existing manual screening system, CAPS will rely solely on information that passengers otherwise provide to air carriers in the normal course of business for reasons unrelated to screening. CAPS will not prompt the gathering of any additional information by the federal government or air carriers, and is not connected to any law enforcement or intelligence database.

Like the existing manual system, CAPS will screen passengers by analyzing passenger information relating only to the current travel of each passenger. CAPS will accomplish this by utilizing both positive and negative factors — positive factors weigh against selection and negative factors weigh in favor of selection — and each factor has an FAA-assigned positive or negative score. In order to determine whether a passenger should be selected, the airline reservation computer identifies the factors that the passenger has hit upon and totals the positive and negative scores; those passengers who score below the FAA-prescribed cut-off are selectees. In addition, pursuant to a recommendation of the White House Commission and its Civil Liberties Advisory Panel, CAPS will include as selectees a limited number of passengers randomly chosen by the computer who were not selected by the screening factors.

When passengers either check-in or purchase a ticket at the airport, the reservation computer will inform the airline employee whether each passenger is a selectee or not. The computer will not inform the employee whether the selection was based on the screening factors or random selection, and will not inform the employee of the passenger’s CAPS score. CAPS scores of individual passengers will not be retained by the air carriers or the federal government.

The FAA advises that there are several reasons why CAPS represents a significant improvement over the existing manual screening system. Computerization allows for a more sophisticated, precise, and comprehensive use of the information provided by airline passengers to their air carriers. It also permits the establishment of a more controlled system for applying the screening factors by eliminating the need for airline check-in agents to apply the selection decision rules established by the FAA; this, in turn, eliminates the possibility of an airline employee misapplying the selection rules.

I took a bump off of UAL's last flight MSP-DEN last night when a 737-500 showed up instead of the promised 737-300, and my boarding pass for NW 567 had the "S" on it.
But, I was able to stand by for the earlier NW 565 and when my BP was reissued for that flight, no "S". Hmmmm. Well, it's great to have such timely info here on FLYERTALK...
Daze

The "S-" has to do with CAPS, as one of the previous posters quoted.

The various reasons people are designated as "SELECTEES" or not are not to be discussed by airline personnel as that would defeat the purpose of passenger screening.

NW was approached by the FAA shortly after TWA 800 (since it was thought that the plane was brought down by terrorists) to develop a program that would "pre-screen" passengers based on information in their reservation.

After it was developed, other airlines purchased the program from the government.

Presumably buying a one-way ticket at walk-up fares, or paying cash for a ticket, or similar unusual circumstances could earn you an "-S".

I think you mean "S-". As mentioned before "-S" signifies standby travel.

Do both "-S" and "S-" mean that your checked baggage doesn't go on the plane until after you've boarded?

Checked baggage? What is that?

This is interesting--but I find it a bit odd that an airline or the FAA would want to print the "S-" on the boarding pass--doesn't that alert people (like terrorists) that they have been singled out?

I'd venture that no more than a fractional percentage of travelers even know that a system like CAPS is in existence, let alone that they have been singled out for special attention.