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.

The Pentagon, possibly. Spend the $7, buy the report and READ IT. Come back when you're done.

I read the entire report within a week after it made it to B&N. Thanks for your concern though.

From the 9/11 Commission Report:
"This immeasurable pain was inflicted by 19 young Arabs acting at the behest of Islamist extremists headquartered in distant Afghanistan. Some had been in the United States for more than a year, mixing with the rest of the population. Though four had training as pilots, most were not well-educated. Most spoke English poorly, some hardly at all. In groups of four or five, carrying with them only small knives, box cutters, and cans of Mace or pepper spray, they had hijacked the four planes and turned them into deadly guided missiles."

Save the 7 bucks and go to this website and come back when you have read it: http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/index.htm

"Guns don't kill people; people kill people."

A box cutter did not take down the WTC; a bunch of criminals took WTC 1 & 2 down (something that was probably unimaginable to most of the 9/11 hijackers).

Something tells me, DMorris, that you are less concerned with airline security than with spreading/creating hate, as you seldom miss an opportunity to mention Arabs and Islamic extremists.

Under the policies in place that morning, a teddy bear would have had a chance to take down the WTC.

Pilots and FAs and LEOs and even pax had been conditioned to cooperate with hijackers to get the plane on the ground. A hijacker waving a teddy bear and falsely claiming there was a bomb in the bear would have had a high probability of gaining cockpit access. The terrorists went a bit further by slashing people, but that mainly increased what were already high odds of success. The terrorists could have been just as successful using books as blunt objects and shoelaces to strangle people.

9/11 was a success for the islamofascist wackos because of the idea of exploiting this weakness in the hijacking response, not weapons and not failures in airline screening.

Taking away nail scissors, 1" pen knives, etc. won't prevent another 9/11. No screening technology can prevent ideas from making it past a checkpoint. Letting the military kill terrorists and destroy their culture, however, can make them think twice about taking those ideas onto our soil.

I firmly believe that better screening methods would almost eliminate the risk of airplane hijackings. The focus should be on people, not things, and would employ methods similar to those used by El Al. TSA's screening of Americans is not the answer to airline security, and is another step in the national government curtailing our rights.

You're kidding right?
 

You'd rather have security like El Al? That makes absolutely no sense given your next sentence which suggests that the TSA somehow abridges your rights. Just because you may not fit the profile of a terrorist as specified by El Al doesn't mean that their obtrusive, albeit effective security measures are appropriate for the US. No one in their right minds is going to suggest that the TSA is the correct agency for airline security, but likewise no one would suggest that full lockdown status is necessary. I for one would rather the mindless process of removing shoes, etc instead of being isolated and questioned under extreme duress. Maybe that's just me... :(

I have not heard that El Al isolates and questions the regular traveler under extreme duress. I know that if one stumbles in answering questions designed to allow the screener a chance to observe the prospective traveler, one can be questioned more thoroughly. Other than the implication that El Al isolates and questions an ordinary passenger under extreme duress, everything that I have read and heard about El Al compares very favorably to TSA. My reasoning about this comparison cuts to the most important issue: how effective should our security be? The inane procedures that TSA applies across the board do not protect against determined terrorists. If TSA is going to abridge our rights, which most of us agree it does, then it may as well adopt methods that will stop terrorists. That is why I think TSA should study El Al procedures, which although more overt have apparently prevented any on-board incidents. Of course, this observation is subject to post hac, propter hac in that we cannot be certain that El Al has prevented on-board incidents. Of course, the same limitation applies to TSA regarding its laughable procedures.

Not disagreeing entirely with your post, just pointing out that:
A. Terrorists cold be trained to answer the questions correctly "Are you carrying a bomb? No. Are you a terrorists? No." (of course, hopefully the questions are smarter than that; but whatever they are, a conditioned terrorist would answer then correctly)
B. TSA Management would love an extended boondoggle trip to Israel to "study" security.

There is little that can be done to prevent another 9-11 scale attack. The fact that one has not happened yet should not be construed as evidence of TSA's success, but possibly rather the fact that those inclined to attack us are busy attackig soldiers in Iraq instead (where the soldiers are doing a good job of attacking back).

There are two lists...No-Fly and Selectee. No-Fly matches require LE contact. Selectee (or old school CAPPS hits) matches just spit out the SSSS.

What is SSSS?
 

"SSSS" on the ticket means many things. Most of all, it's just fair warning.

--Paul

From chapter 1: Unlike the earlier flights, the Flight 77 hijackers were reported by a passenger to have box cutters.

hth

I just tried to check in online for my flight tomorrow and got the dreaded:

Your request could not be processed. Check with an agent at airport.

I suppose this means I'll get the SSSS treatment tomorrow. At least I know not to try to smuggle a lighter in my carry on. :rolleyes: :mad:

Good luck and God Speed to you, Traveller~~
 

1) Please let us know what happens and why you got kicked out of the inline check-in!

2) Wash well when you shower tomorrow lest an overzealous inspector get offended

OR

2) Defer your morning shower until you get to your hotel room so you can give the inspector a search to remember!

We'll be waiting to hear!

--Paul

Yes, got the Super Stupid Secondary Screening. Since this was my home airport, and a small one, and I know most of the TSA there and they are pretty decent (no screaming, no power trips), I didn't put up as much of a fuss as I would have in a bigger airport. I did make the screener change gloves before going thru my carryon.

When I gave my boarding pass to the gate agent, she just looked at me and said "YOU????". She couldn't believe it either since I travel every week thru MLB. I said to her at least I was warned 24 hours in advance, and she said that something has to be done about this system. She said "but it's the government"....

.....

No, a box cutter did not take down the WTC. A bunch of Islamic terrorist thugs used box cutters to take over planes that the Islamic terrorists flew into the WTC. This is a huge difference. No box cutter, or for that matter firearm, ever decided on its own to harm someone. A person has to wield the instrument or weapon in order to harm someone. This is the fallacy in the approach that TSA has taken, in hassling regular Americans just trying to get from point A to point B.

SSSS probably doesn't stand for anything. I remember back in the early post-9/11 days (pre TSA) that one's boarding passes were sometimes marked with a simple "*S*" to signify extra harassment at the gate. Four S's are easier to spot than just one. :rolleyes:

I read an interesting and troubling book last year, The Outlaw Sea : A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime by William Langewiesche, about the lawlessness and wide open nature of ocean freight shipping.

It is believed that Al Qaeda owns one or a number of freighters. If they don't, they can steal one easily- just have a half dozen terrorists work a couple freighter runs to learn the ropes, then all sign up onto the same ship, once they're in the open sea they throw the rest of the crew overboard and repaint the ship. That's how the pirates in the South China sea do it. Once they have a ship, load it with explosives and sail it into a port. Tracking and finding the ships is nearly impossible, since even many of the legit ships are registered under multiple layers of shadow corporations spread across multiple countries.

The TSA screening makes it unlikely that another 9/11 type hijacking will take place, but the terrorists will just do what they do in places like Iraq... when one type of target gets secured and hardened, they just shift to softer targets. They are flexible and creative (in a very sick sort and distorted form of creativity) and they look for simple solutions.