What is SSSS?
 

This is the first time I've posted here. I figured this would be the place to get an answer to my question.

I fly from MCO to LAS 3 or 4 times a year and this is the first time I've ever run into this situation. I was flying AW and the security at MCO was a non-event as usual. But coming back from LAS it was a nightmare. I had taken my belt off and taken eveything out of my pockets and put it all in my carryon. I took my shoes off and put them in a basket. When I got to security I was told I would have to go through secondary security because AW had marked my boarding pass with SSSS. I had no idea what that was and still don't. The first TSA guy treated me like a common criminal. He was very obnoxious. He wanded me and almost knocked me over when he patted me down. I asked him why I was being treated this way and he said because my airline said I was a supicious person. Then some other TSA guy came over and told me to follow him. We went back to the machine and my carryon was sitting on the floor with my shoes on top of it. They had already gone through the machine. I reached down to pick up my shoes and the guy literally screamed at me not to touch my shoes unitl he told me too. I was stunned. He then picked up my shoes and my carryon and walked over to a table.

When we got to the table he handed me my shoes and told me to go ahead and put them on because they had already gone through the machine. What sense does that make? Then he proceeded to go through my carryon which after 4 nights in Vegas contained nothing but dirty clothes. He pulled it all out and the funny thing was he had no gloves on. He was handling my dirty underwear with his bare hands. He wiped the inside of the carryon and checked it for something but of course there was nothing. But with him not wearing gloves couldn't he contaminate my luggage with his bare hands if he had touched something earlier? I still don't understand that part. Anyway they finally let me go. I emailed AW asking what the story was but I've not gotten an answer from them. I'm a gray haired old man who hasn't even had a traffic ticket in over 25 years. Can any of you help me out here? Thanks.

I would presume that you were chosen randomly. But for the TSA screener to tell you your airline thought you were a suspicious person was way out of line.

Also, you should have demanded that the person going through your luggage put on gloves. Why he didn't have them on, to my mind, just proves how "unbrained" some of these people are. In addition, you should have demanded that the screener doing the pat down put on fresh gloves also.

I presume that something "illegal" could have been put in your luggage had the dumb screener wanted to do so, but I would be far more concerned with where his ungloved hands had been before he went through your luggage - what might he have left in your luggage that he could have picked up from another person's luggage. Or, and please dont take offense, what could he have transmitted from your "dirty clothes" to the next unlucky suspicious person who came his way.

These wannabes were doing a power trip thing on, as you describe yourself, a "gray-haired old man".

Let me ask you, do you feel safer because of what happened or does it make you more likely to reconsider making that trip again, if you have a choice in the matter? If you would think twice about making that trip again, you need to let AW know that also.

And last but not least, you must send a letter of complaint to the TSA, the FSD at the airport and the airport director. I presume you were not able to get names and badge numbers - but if you can include in your letter the time you went through the line, which line it was - narrow it down as close as possible - perhaps someone will take the time to try to track down who was on duty at that time in that line.

No, this is last: we are paying the salaries of these clowns - we must demand that they do their jobs properly, courteously and according to the TSA's written protocols.

You get SSSS'd if your name is on a particular list, if you fly one-way, if you buy your ticket at the last minute, if you pay cash, if your original flight is cancelled and you're put on a different flight, or if you're just plain unlucky - as you apparently were. All this was designed to help catch a terrorist - do you think it works? :)

choo choo train..welcome to Flyertalk and the TS/S Forum!

In short, as many will say on here, SSSS means HaraSSSSment.

The difference is criminals have rights that are enforced by the courts and guaranteed by the constitution. As a citizen going through a TSA checkpoint, you have volunteered for that treatment (by givng your "implied consent").

It is terrible but until the American people wake up and let their voices be heard, abuse at the hands of the TSA will only continue. But comrade, it is for your own safety.

9/11? 3000 dead? Islamic jihadists? War on terror? Richard Reid - Islamic wacko? Yea......"abuse" from the TSA. :rolleyes:

What a relief to see that with the billions of dollars spent on homeland security TSA still can not recognize the difference between an old gray hair man and an Islamic jihadist? I know the TSA agent whom sent me (another old gray hair man) to secondary for no reason except spite would not be able to distinguish **** from shinola let alone me from an Islamic jihadist. :rolleyes:

Uh oh. Looks like the sacred memory of 9/11 has been invoked. Further rational discussion on this topic must now cease.

If the TSA's method actually made the flying (and grounded) public safer, I'd support them. In reality it is window dressing and government employees on pathetic power trips. A knitting needle or eyeglass screwdriver taking down a plane? Pa-leaze...

Context
 

[/on soapbox]

As an outsider to this particular forum and a long time lurker (13+ months) before joining and posting I always find these issues to most interesting ones to dissect. While I certainly agree that the OP was mistreated and should correspond with whatever officials necessary to make sure that such instances are reduced, to suggest that the TSA as a whole seeks to undermine the rights of individuals is at best preposterous and at worse dangerous. As a liberal myself, I very much appreciate the fervor with which many on this board protect the inherent rights of man to privacy and the like but we must remember the global environment that we live in. To suggest that our democratically elected government instituted a program specifically intended to abridge our rights accomplishes the tasks that the terrorists could not achieve: it breaks the american spirit.

So, continue to compel the TSA to refine its tasks in order to facilitate "safety" but dont take the actions of a few foolish agents as representative of the attitudes of greater society.

[/off soapbox]

It's a sad day when I'm treated better by security in other countries than I am in my own.

Security in Japan has been nothing short of stellar, quick, and pleasant. Most importantly, no hassle.

I look forward to the day when my own country does that again.

ChooChoo:

To perhaps better answer some of your specific questions:

The "SSSS" is the code used to indicate to TSA that a person has been selected for additional security screening.

When TSA told you that your airline said you were a "suspicious person," he was perhaps technically but not completely correct. The program used to determine who gets the SSSS is administered by the airlines and takes place on airline computers, though it is required by and overseen by the federal government.

There are three different reasons a person can get the SSSS:
1. Your name matches the name of a person on the "selectee list." The list is maintained by the government, and the government won't say much about who has ultimate control over the list, or even how many people are on the list.
2. The "old" criteria, still in use, are circumstance based. Here, as another poster mentioned, one way tickets, cash purchases, and last-minute ticket purchases are deemed to be more suspicious in nature than "normal" round trip or advance tickets. It is also less likely that you will receive SSSS on these grounds if you have a frequent flyer number in the computer for the same airline that is operating the flight.
3. Random. A very small percentage of passengers who aren't on the list and don't meet any of the triggering criteria get SSSS on a random basis.

It could be you just hit the lottery this given day.
In any event, you definitely encountered screeners far to the rude side of the spectrum, which is unfortunate.

I would like to go on record as agreeing with 90minfromJFK's sentiments as well. :thumbsup:

I bought the ticket in January, I paid by credit card, and my original flight was not cancelled, so I hope it was a case of just being unlucky. I hope I'm not on one of their lists. I really felt like I never wanted to fly again, it was that humiliating but I've got the same trip in two weeks and again in a month and a half, both of which have been booked and paid for quite some time. If a person is on one of their lists is there anyway to find out? I'm so glad the TSA is saving me from me. I feel much safer flying. If it happens again I will be more prepared and will know to take names and numbers. Thanks for your responses.

I do not believe that as a whole the TSA actions really make the flying public safer, it is only to make us feel safer. I have also come across a few agents who appear to be on power trips but my path crosses people like that in many areas of life; state troopers when speeding, conference room showdowns, drivers in NJ, etc. It is just life, deal with it.

BTW, a box cutter took down the WTC.

"state troopers when speeding"...not that it's o.k. for them to be on a power trip, but if you get picked up for speeding, you've already broken a law.

I'm a NJ driver and I know that some are on power trips - but they aren't doing anything to you other than maybe honking their horn or giving you the finger. They are not treating you as if you were a criminal. They are not searching through your baggage, making you stand in barefeet, running their hands up and down your body. Neither does that happen in "conference room showdowns".

Taking your place in a security line such as at EWR or MCO does not give screeners, who are not law enforcement personnel, the right to treat individuals as criminals.

As I believe I stated in another thread, the attitude at EWR probably comes from the top down, i.e., Dewey Fong, FSD.

It's my belief that people who allow themselves to be bullied by TSA agents perhaps don't have too much self-respect. No one should stand for the treatment the OP received.

I saw smoke and flames, and not on TV, from the towers on 9/11; I know people who died that day; I am not afraid of terrorists. I don't want to be made to feel like a potential terrorist and no one else should either. Do you honestly feel that 9/11 and Richard Reid are justification for this horrendous governmental waste of money called the TSA?

Do you feel safer? I don't think you do. And if you don't, then why are you giving tacit support to the TSA by saying "it's life, deal with it"?

I may be wrong, but I don't think you get SSSSed just from being on The List™. If your name matches (and I use the term loosely) a no-flyer, the airline's agent at check-in must 'clear' you by contacting the FBI or some other acronym. If you print your boarding pass at home - internet check-in - then you may get SSSSed from The List™, but most airlines websites will simply refuse to print your BP. I think, hard to keep up.