garykung

Seems abusive...

Anyway, I will remove the Redress Number next time (I don't need it anyway - trying to avoid secondary screening by CBP)...

MG2779

Have you tried booking without your redress number? From what I know if you don't put it in, you'll likely have to get your BP at the counter and won't be able to check-in online.

deadpass

I got the SSSS at LAS one time and as soon as I saw it on my BP was piped up about how "random" they are and the agent replied with "oh, this one actually is random" True or not it did make me chuckle a bit.

RichardKenner

Somebody should update Wikipedia, since that list is quite old and all of those items are long gone (and some probably never existed, such as no-show). Now, selectee status comes from SecureFlight data and based on criteria that aren't disclosed, but appear to mostly relate to watch-list status.

jiejie

Sometimes it really does seem to be random. On a PEK-BKK-LAX outbound part of a round-trip ticket booked with ROP miles on TG at least a month in advance, I got SSSS'd on the BP for the BKK-LAX leg. Not a single one of the "red flag" markers applied to me. First time this had happened in years (and I fly this route at least a couple of round-trips per year). Try not to take it too personally, unless it starts to happen often.

garykung

I have no problem with OLCI before (which I get all boarding passes before going to the airport). This is the first time I used the Redress number. Believe me - I will remove and see (since I have no problem in the past anyway).

flapping arms

I'll be glad to update it once I have a reliable source to cite. Would you happen to have a RS? How about the TSOs who frequent this forum -- got any reliable secondary sources for the current four-S criteria?

In my opinion, the super-sensitive TSA SOP counts as a primary source, and Wikipedia wants citations to secondary sources. So I'm not asking people to break SBU-SSI restrictions for this.

PhotoJim

Just found this thread, so apologies for the tardy post.

I got SSSS for the first time on a May 2 YQR-ORD[-FLL] flight. Round trip ticket returning six days later, same route, same ticket, UA metal the whole way through. I'd already done one US trip in February (UA metal on an AC ticket for the transborder segment) and one other domestic Canadian trip, and had a domestic Canadian trip booked for May 13-16 on AC.

I'm not sure why I was selected. I'm hoping it was just a random selection. I'm in NEXUS and have zero problems with my border crossings.

I got through security at YQR as normal (I'd never seen SSSS before so I thought nothing of it; my ORD-FLL flight was on CO metal so I thought the inability to print the boarding pass was related to that - in fact, UA couldn't print my CO boarding pass at YQR either and I had to print it at ORD). When I tried to board, the computer spit me out. The gate agent got a pair of CATSA agents there within a couple of minutes and they did a gate check, which was quite pleasant and painless, actually.

We have millimetre wave machines at YQR so I am puzzled that I wasn't caught at security. No matter, since I still got on the YQR-ORD flight and we left approximately on time.

eturowski

Huh. It is very interesting that nobody at the checkpoint did anything about the SSSS, but that you were flagged at the gate.

Did you actually see it printed on your BP, or was it a random selection by the gate scanner?

Either way...

At least it wasn't much (more) of a (pointless, unnecessary) hassle for you.

PhotoJim

It was on my boarding pass, but I'd never seen it before and didn't think anything of it. I was a little suspicious that something was up when I couldn't check in for the flight the day before, but I figured the dual-metal ticket might have something to do with it.

I can't think of any criterion I might meet for UA to intentionally select me. The ticket was a credit card purchase 3 months before, round trip. Perhaps I entered something wrong in APIS, or I was just a random selectee.

I could check in for the return flight 24 hours out but was told I had to print the boarding pass at the airport. The checkin agent at FLL scanned my passport before printing my boarding passes, and all was well.

YQR is a smallish airport (~1.3 million pax/year, 8 gates) and we don't have US preclearance but most of my US flights are via AC metal via Calgary/Toronto/Vancouver. This is only the second time I've flown from YQR directly to a US airport.

The irony is that in February last year, in the wake of the shoe bomber fiasco, almost all pax on US-bound flights from Canada received secondary screening. I was the only passenger on the YQR-DEN leg that day that didn't. I guess it all balances out.

Fornebufox

I just got SSSS on my BP for the second time in the last few months--thought something was up when I couldn't print BPs after OLCI. I fly CDG-NYC every month or so, sometimes with a connection (the closest I get to mileage runs). I'll have to check my old BPs to verify but maybe they think it's weird not to take the non-stop flight (my routing takes advantage of the business class fare wars that were running a few months back).

Pete838

A good friend of mine from SEA recently came to visit me in MCO. He's not a FF, maybe once every couple of years. He arrived for his departure, checked bag, and queued up for security. He did say he noticed a row of S's near the top of his BP.

Once he got to the TSA screening area he said he was pulled aside and subjected to screening that would make Orwell add a chapter to 1984. He was detained for over an hour and missed his first flight and subsequent connection in MSP. During the detention he was asked about his plans, destination, who he was visiting, etc.; his belongings thoroughly examined by hand and swabbed for explosives. Eventually he was let go and DL re-booked him for $50.

Return leg originating at MCO his BP had the same SSSS. This time he was quickly through security, made it to the plane, boarded, but the TSA came aboard the aircraft and removed him. This time the screening was less 'invasive', but still much more than normal pax receive. The pilot was interested in what was going on, and told my friend he would hold the plane as long as he could, and in the end the plane did depart on time with my friend on board.

My friend cleans carpets for a living. He is a 30-something white guy with a wife, 4 kids, and a small house in Everett. He isn't a terrorist, and it isn't likely that he could be confused for one.

Has anyone ever received or witnessed this treatment? What the hell happened and what can he do to prevent something like that in the future? Apply for redress? Any other suggestions?

seaduck79

I had the same thing happen to me from SEA - YYZ a few years back. As I am not a person as to be on anyone's threat list, the only thing we could think of was that I had booked the Air Canada flight on United's website.

Never had it happen before or since.

After the first time or two, the TSA guys and I would just joke about it. I didn't act badly, and as a result neither did they. Nothing they or I could do about it - it was just some airline computer glitch that neither airline would admit was theirs to fix.

smith80678

There is a number of things that could have done it: paying cash for a flight, similarity to another persons name etc...you may never know. I once got severely searched beacause i misunderstood what the ticket agent asking about whether I had a checked bag (she made some mark on the Boarding pass).

squeakr

my DH went through that for some time - does your friend have a relatively common name?