"You were supposed to be SSSSd... please return to security"??!?!
 

Mrs. Psychtobe was flying DL on a NW award ticket. Couldn't check in online so we suspected SSSS, and arrived early.

Despite some chaos at security (obviously inexperienced non-TSA staff directing traffic), she made it through on time and went to her gate. No SSSS.

As she attempts to board when her row is called, the DL agent informs her that she was supposed to have received Special Screening, and they can't let her on the plane until she returns to TSA security and her BP is cleared! To add insult to injury, they tell her she "better hurry!" Mrs. psychtobe hightails it back to security, where they search her bags, body, etc; then rushes back to DL gate in time to board the plane.

Questions:

1. If she was supposed to be SSSS'd and wasn't, what was the point of having her return to Security for the screening? By that point, if she had been a bad guy, whatever contraband she had been carrying would have long been disposed of, so why send her back?

2. Why wasn't a security breach called - if TSA feels SSSS is an important anti-terror mechanism, and someone who was supposed to have received it didn't, shouldn't they have closed the terminal and searched for contraband?

3. Would DL really have taken off without her? What recourse would she have had? Would DL have blamed her for "not leaving adequate time" for security?

4. Has anyone experienced this before?

Rules is rules. The Jobsworth's have to keep to their rules regardless of however inane they are.

In this case they should have cleared the terminal, searched everyone, including those on flights that had departed, that had been in the terminal since Mrs. Psychtobe had passed through security just in case Mrs. Psychtobe had passed Something Evil to her terrorist compatriots.

If flying on an award ticket, I'd probably go out to "clear" security. But first I would waste a lot of time and miss my flight (presuming I had no checked in luggage and that there was a better non-stop or connection option than the convoluted award options I often get initially). Why? To get re-booked and possibly earn miles on an award ticket. :)

United pulled this one on me at ORD, bloody idiots. I was connecting between carriers at ORD, last segment on UA. As I am connecting, I have already cleared security at the airport where I started my journey; upon arriving on one carrier, I was naturally in the secure area; I walked across to the next concourse and I went to United to obtain my boarding pass for the connecting flight - I was taged 'SSSS'.

Anyway, boarding time comes and United would not allow me to board because my Boarding Pass wasn't marked that I had gone through selectee screening. I told the agent I was making a connection between airlines at ORD, showed her my previous boarding pass that got me to ORD along with ticket receipt, stated I had already been through security (how else would I be in the secure area :rolleyes: ), and I told her outright this is the most ridicilous thing I ever encountered. All flights were on one ticket as well, FWIW.

I told her I would proceed back to security, but if the flight departs without me I expect full IDB compensation because I met all check-in requirements, was at the gate prior to boarding, and presented by boarding pass when zone was called. I took my time (i.e. I did not run) and went back to the security checkpoint, got a friggin secondary screening, my BP was hole punched, and I walked back to the gate. They held the flight for me and I was the last to board. I then gave my boarding pass to the (same) ticket-taker again with the special hole punch in it and told her that what I just had to do was bloody ridicilous, a waste of my time, and (I was venting) it amounted to nothing more than harassment.

I have boarded flights with the "SSSS" designation from boarding passes issued behind security after being rebooked from a canceled flight, re-scheduled after taking a bump, etc, but I've never had to return to security for "special treatment" (except United at ORD). Once I even went from a non-selectee to a selectee for taking a bump on United.

Flight departed about 20 minutes later as a result (ok, flight was already late to start with, but they missed their "new" departure time). Once on the flight, my seatmate asked what happened and I explained - he was in disbelief, so was one of the FA's whom overheard us talking.

For those who believe the TSA can do no wrong or "why do some people have problems" --- if this isn't back-a*swards stupid and a waste, I don't know what is.

SDF_Traveler

Oh, come on. Surely you felt safer after you got the full secondary, didn't you? I always feel safer after I'm wanded. You never know when one of those wascally terrorists might slip something into my clothes while I wasn't paying attention. And the people who set up the SSSSing procedures are security professionals. They know what they're doing! :rolleyes:

Bruce

Do she agree that you would receive full IDB compensation if the flight left without you?

Has anyone actually missed a flight when sent back from the gate to SSSS? I'm curious to know what you would be offered.

^ ^

I always feel safer after a random secondary. After all, I may have become a terrorist overnight after decades of loyal, faithful patriotism to the USA, including having served to defend it. Never know what the next day may bring. :)

Gotta agree with SDF on this one: If I am in the sterile area after having arrived on a connecting flight - it is lunacy to send me outside for a secondary. If I was gonna do something evil, I would have done it on the arriving flight, no?

I would have told the GA that he/she should keep an eye on me at all times since I have not been properly screened. The GA should then have the TSA come down to the gate to finish the screening. Failing that the GA or another airline employee should escort me back to security for my screening. Think of the children. :D

One time only, in 2003. My boarding pass was SSSS, but no one at the security checkpoint directed me to secondary screening, despite the fact that I dutifully displayed my BP. At the gate, the AA agent saw that the BP had not been marked, so she called for TSA to come to the gate. This occurred several months after gate searches had been discontinued - all "screening" was to have occurred at the checkpoints at the entrance to each concourse. It takes a few minutes for the TSA screener to arrive, and people are boarding. He did not have any unused gloves with him, which I always request due to the chance of cross-contamination with God only knows what virus or microbe. I only had my briefcase, because I was on a short run for a deposition and would return that day, so it did not take him long to confirm that I was not dangerous (okay, I did have my belt with which I could have strangled someone, and I did have sharp writing implements with which I could have stabbed someone or turned his brain into mush, but TSA does not consider that those items are threats or weapons in the wrong hands). I was the last person to board, and several times expressed to the gate agent that I would have been extrememly displeased, to the point of filing a federal lawsuit, if I had missed the flight.

Once again, another wonderful experience flying in post-9/11 America. I think we ought to use massive amounts of conventional ordnance against Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Pakistan, and several other countries because of the problems that their citizens have caused here in the U.S. and their lack of a menaingful response, such as ending the conditions that allow such terrorism to flourish.

"Think of the children." LOL! I have flown on WN before, received SSSS at the original departure airport, changed flights (able to catch an earlier flights) at intermediate airport (MDW) INSIDE STERILE AREA, and received new BP with SSSS. To their credit, WN has never called TSA for totally unnecessary second selectee screening. What kind of a brain-dead moron designs a system that spits out a BP with SSSS under those circumstances?

I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.

I feel safer just reading these stories!

A medical emergency messed up an AA MR last year. When I got to SEA, I flew standby on an AS flight. The BP printed out with SSSS on it. The gate agent took her bic pen and just crossed it out.

Her co-worker later saw that SSSS was crossed out and asked what the deal was and she said that I'd just come off another flight, so it was OK.

[QUOTE=PatrickHenry1775]One time only, in 2003. My boarding pass was SSSS, but no one at the security checkpoint directed me to secondary screening, despite the fact that I dutifully displayed my BP. At the gate, the AA agent saw that the BP had not been marked, so she called for TSA to come to the gate. This occurred several months after gate searches had been discontinued - all "screening" was to have occurred at the checkpoints at the entrance to each concourse. It takes a few minutes for the TSA screener to arrive, and people are boarding. He did not have any unused gloves with him, which I always request due to the chance of cross-contamination with God only knows what virus or microbe. I only had my briefcase, because I was on a short run for a deposition and would return that day, so it did not take him long to confirm that I was not dangerous (okay, I did have my belt with which I could have strangled someone, and I did have sharp writing implements with which I could have stabbed someone or turned his brain into mush, but TSA does not consider that those items are threats or weapons in the wrong hands). I was the last person to board, and several times expressed to the gate agent that I would have been extrememly displeased, to the point of filing a federal lawsuit, if I had missed the flight.

Once again, another wonderful experience flying in post-9/11 America. I think we ought to use massive amounts of conventional ordnance against Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Pakistan, and several other countries because of the problems that their citizens have caused here in the U.S. and their lack of a menaingful response, such as ending the conditions that allow such terrorism to flourish.[/QUOTE]
So you want to kill millions of innocent people :mad: I do not think that is the proper answer

Next time I travel, I will bring along a marker so I can cross out the SSSS.
If you happen to leave the secure area with a cleared BP, do you have to go through the secondary harrassment again upon re-entry?

That's true. TSA needs to pay attention to boarding passes, rather than the 18 month-old children who get SSSSed.