New Here - Question about SSSS
 

Hi Guys!

I have been lurking on and off for awhile now but this is my first post. Like all of you I am a frequent biz traveler - about 80% of my flights are on DL with the other 20% spread out between the other majors (AA, UAL, SWA and NWA). Every single time I fly on AA I get an SSSS on the bottom of my boarding pass which puts me in the "uber search" line.

What criteria puts you on this list? I have NEVER been searched on any other airline ever (and I flew over 100K butt in seat miles last year) except for American.

Can anyone shed any light on why AA has me singled out? What does the SSSS mean? Am I on a type of "no-fly" list?

Thanks!
Kelley

Dont know all the criteria but do know that if you book a one way or change your flight plans last minute or pay cash, that in all likelihood will flag you for secondary screening.

There's other criteria as well I assume, but the one way seems to catch lots of people.

If you are on a "no fly" list you just dont fly, no two ways about it, so that cant be the reason.

I'm sure you have an AAdvantage account, and when you fly AA, you do credit the miles to it, right? Most of the majors (if not most of the airlines in general) shield their own members to some degree from haraSSSSment.

I do have an AAdvantage account with about 10K miles in it - AA doesnt fly to my main home airport so I rarely use them. I did have words with a ticket agent for AA who completely screwed up the flights for my company (13 of us delayed 12 hours in LAX) and have gotten this SSSS on my AA boarding passes ever since. Could this be the reason???

Disney Flier, BITE YOUR TONGUE!!! The TSA is a GUMMINT AGENCY, boy! They could never, ever, ever, never, ever NEVER be used by a spiteful airline employee this way!

Trrrr-ust me, Diz! Where ya think ya ARE? NEVERLAND???

Jeez! Next you'll be accusin' em' of gropin' ya in public withOUT dignity and respect... Just quiet down and nobody 'round here'll tell anybody else what you mighta been thinkin'...

Hmmm
 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I couldn't find any mention of TSA in the OP's question. I think he/she was asking why AA makes him/her a selectee. Why confuse the issue with an agenda driven, off the cuff tirade about the "gummint."

Hmmm... well, different airlines select their SSSS pax differently. DHS / the TSA requires them to mark something like 15% of their pax for haraSSSSment, which most do by using the silly one-way, last-minute flight criteria, and many shield their elites and even general members from selection when they can select Joe Q. Flier for SSSS.

Since it's the airlines who select passengers and not the TSA themselves, AA is for whatever reason picking you all the time. It's tough to judge whether one AA agent could put anything in your record to make you a perpetual selectee (though not impossible). I do know that UA and DL never SSSSelect me, even on one-way or last-minute tickets... but maybe AA doesn't shield their members (particularly if you don't have status with them) as well as UA or DL.

Actually, the TSA agents at BNA and SWF were super nice but made it a point to tell me over and over that the AIRLINE had requested that I go thru additional screening. They never said I was randomly selected and I asked! One TSA agent told me that he sees this quite a bit and that it is downright harassment by the airlines.

Wonder how the heck I get off this list!! I avoid AA at all costs now but sometimes work scheduling dictates my flights and some are going to be on AA.

Ugh. Give me Delta any day!

Uhhh...

Sorry, url buster. You're right. I can only speak to why UA selected ME. Once was far more than enough. I WAS under the impression, however, that the original poster didn't LIKE secondaries, so naturally I sorta jumped towards the root of the problem rather than the end of the thread... Say... what if he DOES like secondaries??? Wouldn't that be a 'first'?

If such people are out there, maybe they can volunteer to be martyrs who always count themselves toward the required % of SSSSelectees to thus lessen the chances of the rest of us being selected ;)

Just change your name to Mohammed or Achmed. Then I am sure you will be a worthy volunteer for auto-SSSS.

Or change your name to Robert Brown.

I know a Robert Brown who is in his 60s, and every time he flies he is SSSSed with an extensive ID check at the ticket counter, because there's a Robert Brown born in 1982 who's on the watch list. :rolleyes:

Many other common Anglo-American names are on "the list" purely because the names are so common.

deleted

If you update your frequent flyer account's address such that the account has you as domiciled in the EU, you are entitled, under EU law, to access all information that AA has about you through your account. AA will even send you a nice notice in the local language and in English telling you how to request such information that they may store about you.

There will be somewhat of a move away from using principally names (and FF numbers secondarily) to using birthdates & telephone numbers along with the name and FF number to "identify" travellers. The name, birthdate and/or telephone number will be used as part of the basis of vetting the person through private databases from companies not known for their data accuracy but known for keeping dossiers on people anyway. [A person's dog becoming someone's spouse, per such records, is not unknown. :eek: ]

That is exactly what my boss suggested but what good would an attorney's letter be against a monster company like AA? And how on earth would I prove they are singling me out?

The whole thing is just so frustrating.