SSSS Has Got To Be Random.....
 

Just cleared secondary screening at HNL (interisland term).

Four of us on a HA award tix (using CO miles).
No recent change in itin.
Itin is roundtrip HNL/KOA/HNL.
Award booked since September, 2004.

What could have caused the SSSS except pure chance?
(All 4 boarding passess were tagged, including the two minor children.)

Took 3 friendly/professional screeners about 15 minutes.

Were all four (4) of you on the same record?

If so, and the kids don't fly much, that might have been the trigger.

The best available information about CAPPS shows that on top of the original (stupid) triggers and the more recent link to the government name list...the algorithm has always called for a small percentage of random flags as a "check." you may have just hit the lottery.

Yes......

Actually, I'm the only one of the four that flies more than 3x/year.

The screeners about gagged when they saw that we each had two bags.

A small percentage of SSSSes truly are random. But it sounds like yours might have been due to the fact that you were flying HA with no HA frequent flyer number in the record.

If your boarding pass doesn't have the FF# of the carrier whose equipment you're flying on, you're more likely to be haraSSSSed. I've noticed that I'm SSSSed about 50% of the time I fly United, since I credit my United flights to my US Airways account.

I agree that not having a FF # of the airline you are flying significantly increases your risk of being SSSS. It has also happened to me with requesting United FF miles when flying US Airways.

It's good of you to help fulfill UA's quota of SSSSelectees so those of us who put our MP#s on don't get SSSSelected ;) Actually, though, US has never done that to me for using my UA #--fortunately, as I fly US Shuttle fairly often. :D

Not THAT Random
 

I can't believe it......................

The four of us just got SSSSSed on the return leg of the itin (KOA-HNL).

No FF #s on any of the the boarding passes (just lots of "S's).

Fortunately, the TSA waived the 2 kids who grabbed 6 of our 8 bags so the secondary involved only Mrs Billiken, me and 2 roll-aboards. ^ ^

If you get SSSSed one way, you'll probably get it the other way, too. I think it's assigned to the whole itinerary, not to an individual passenger or instance of checkin.

I got my first SSSS in a couple years in January on a EWR-IAH CO flight. I got it going both ways, while my fiancee, who was originally on the same record (we split them to try to increase EUA chances), didn't get SSSSed either way. Perhaps splitting the reservations caused it, but I had split reservations on a similar EWR-IAH flight a couple months earlier without getting SSSSed.

I think the percentage of SSSSes that are random is growing. Now it seems that folks with Arabic-sounding names and/or truly bizarre travel habits are the only ones likely to get SSSSed on a regular basis. I have one friend whose last name is Ahmed who gets it almost every time, and another friend (HK-born Englishman) who usually has at least one RTW ticket going in each direction to bounce him around between SFO, NYC, BOS, LHR, MLA, ATH, HKG, MNL, PER, and SYD.

I think the old-school one-way/last-minute-purchase/no-ff# criteria are fading into the past. I haven't gotten SSSSed on any one-way or circle tickets I've bought in the last year, nor on the walk-up ticket I bought on UA a few weeks ago.

This is conjecture on my behalf...

We know that there is a certain proportion of selectees on each flight. So if CAPPS doesn't flag enough people, the system begins to assign random selectee status to fill up the quota.

Does that make sense?

I'll never understand why I got SSSS'd flying from Columbus to Honolulu on a regularly purchased round-trip, purchased online a month before departure. I was a Silver Medallion frequent flyer on a route I've flown many times, using the same credit card I always use. I just figured that they had to fill the quota somehow.

Yes, I'm still bitter about that particular incident (they were wanding my bare skin, apparently determining the iron content of my blood.)

Does anyone know if one-way trips are still dangerous? I just flew a few one-ways on Delta (status) and American (wishing for status) and didn't get SSSS on any. Half a year ago, one-ways on AA and WN got me SSSSed. Perhaps one-ways are no longer highlighted or perhaps I've just been on enough of them?

Can ANYONE tell me, or even guess how the SSSS process can make us safer?

I just don't understand how it helps.

It doesn't.

Eventually, it will scare all legitimate flyers out of the airports due to simple annoyance, leaving behind just the terrorists! DUH. :-P

Then they just arrest everyone that tries to get on an airplane... sounds like that would stop terrorists pretty well.