I'm not sure what's up lately. Maybe I just haven't seen this very much, but twice in the past two weeks I have seen people getting the full body check at gates prior to departure. Last week at ORD, a woman was extremely unhappy being told that she had to wait for TSA and wouldn't be allowed to board until she was screened -- and the flight wasn't going to be held for her. She had been at ORD for four or five hours on a layover apparently and was pulled out of line for the treatment.

Today at IAH, I saw two guys getting the treatment before boarding.

What's going on? Are these SSSS tickets that got missed? Or are these SSSS BPs that got issued to connecting pax? (And that makes no sense whatsoever.)

I may be wrong here but I believe that when the TSA stopped gate screening on nearly every flight, they retained the right to random gate screenings. And I've seen them on very rare occasions over the last couple years.
Perhaps you just ran into a couple random screenings back-to-back.

Okay, as you are well aware, the computer that prints boardnig passes is the one that puts the SSSS on it. IF they get missed at the checkpoint, when the pax goes to board and the GA sees the SSSS they have to call TSA and have them screened. Some airports send the PAX back to the CP to have it done and others have screeners that are sent to the gate. There are cases where the CP screeners dont mark the pass to show that it was done and therefore, it gets done again. This really pisses passengers off.
I have seen cases where the ticket counter computer lets the passenger have a BP that has no SSSS on it and the computer at the gate says that they are SSSS. I have seen PAX that come from connecting flights and go to the gate for the next leg and the computer at the gate says they are SSSS and they have never left the sterile area. Random gate screenings are not done anymore.

i would imagine the airline employees checking boarding passes would cause more problems in that regard. (skycaps, etc)

may be wrong...

It never hurts to keep a red pen on your and write TSA with a circle around it on every boarding pass anyway!

That seems like an obvious rule to change:

If a passenger is checked-in without the SSSS, he or she should not be subject to a change of status prior to boarding. Unless the passenger changes his or her mind and--at the gate--decides to pay cash for a ticket to Beirut with no checked bags, it makes no sense.

One of my coworkers just got sent back to the checkpoint with her whole family. I think that actually CREATED a security threatl; she was ready to kill someone at that point.

"Hi, your flight's been cancelled. And now we think you present a risk to the nation's security because of that cancellation."

Common causes of missed selectee screenings (and resultant gate screenings):

1. Contracted ticket reader failed to properly route the selectee passenger into the appropriate lane (for those checkpoints that have a separate selectee screening lane).

2. TSA failed to properly identify the selectee (for those checkpoints where TSA screeners check boarding passes at all of the WTMDs).

3. (as pointed out by eyecue) TSA failed to properly annotate the boarding pass even though selectee screening was conducted. (Holy hell to pay for that mistake.)

4. (as pointed out by eyecue) Selectee passenger is making a connection but never left the sterile area; the gate agent isn't aware of this and either calls for a TSA gate screening or redirects the passenger to the checkpoint for selectee screening.

5. Airline employees, mostly crew members, are designated as selectees but use their airline identification to get through the checkpoint to purposely avoid the additional screening. Always end up getting screened at the gate anyway.

Also pointed out by eyecue, there are instances when passengers are issued a "security document" which is not a boarding pass but allows the passenger to process through the checkpoint. Usually, the security document will have the four SSSS if the passenger is a selectee. However, I've also seen it when the security document did not indicate selectee status yet the boarding pass, when issued at the gate, did. Don't ask me why the same computer system which spits out the security document at the ticket counter prints out SSSS at the gate.

Here's the frustration from a screener perspective: the airlines CAN use some common sense and exempt passengers who weren't selectees on the cancelled flight. Some ticket agents just don't want to assume the responsibility (just blame it on the computer) whereas others are just hard-asses about it. My point is that existing policy allows airlines to override the computer whenever it spits out SSSS just because the passenger technically falls within one of the parameters for selectee screening. Same applies for underaged children; the airlines CAN exempt them from selectee screening is the computer pops SSSS on the boarding pass. Fortunately, TSA has gone back to its previous policy of allowing us to exempt underaged children at the checkpoint. The airlines can also exempt active duty military personnel on official travel orders, and the airlines are inconsistent in this regard. This is a big thing at SAT since we have a lot of military travellers. Point is that there is a lot the airlines can do to alleviate unnecessary selectee screening but don't. This is transparent to the traveller, and we end up getting a lot of the blame.

Comes with the territory.

I really think the Airlines needs to redo their policy on SSSS. I hate seeing military on one way tickets get ssss, the airlines CAN delete this and they just don't. If a flight has been cancelled and they re-book half the flight is SSSS. Just stupid. I also want to know why some checkpoints have to check boarding passes and others don't. I think it must have something to do with the airlines demanding it. I know at my airport the airlines have asked the TSA to recheck the boarding passes at the WTMD because the airline employed ticket checkers miss half of them. But at MCO they don't. The selectee line there was very long both times this week.

Not sure the airlines can totally delete it. I wonder if some gate agents get spooked on trumping the SSSS. Heck, UA audits most of GAs upgrading stuff, I can only imagine what would happen with SSSS exemptions.

Whatever happened to that thread a month or two ago --- someone saying 'on good authority' about the SSSS thing being relaxed?

Your are partially correct about the airlines not being able to trump just any boarding pass with SSSS on them. However, the airlines CAN exempt certain ones such as infants & young children, military on official travel orders (reservists, guardsmen & active duty) as well as active duty military personnel, and they can exempt those passengers who were not previously a selectee but were selected for the current flight only because their previous flight was cancelled. There are, contrary to popular belief, common sense provisions in the current policy. The problem is one of human dynamics: it is easier to go with the path of least resistance than to assume responsibility for a decision.

Understood.

In UA's case, they're afriad to lose their jobs. I know a few CSRs, they tell me of the ramifications of issuing out-of-place upgrades. Can only imagine what might happen with the SSSS thing.

try this one......and it happpened this past memorial day w/e

i was returning las-sfo and took a bump from the 4pm to the 6pm and guess what-i got ssss'd on my "new flight". the gate agent was dumbfounded and couldn't figure out how to remove it-which i told him not to as he would probably get in big trouble. he made a phone call to find out what to do and he was told to tell me that i had to return to the tsa check point for screening. neither one of us could believe that so i had him tell the person on the phone that i very politely (seriuosly-not sarcastically) refused and that i would surrender my i/d and bags to the g/a and wait for tsa to come to me but i was not, as a previously screeded pax who was now inside the sterile and secure area, going to return to the checkpoint unattended.

the result, 5 tsa folks and 1 leo showed up (after 40 minutes ). the tsa folks were b/s because i didn't follow procedure by returning to the checkpoint and the leo had to keep himself from laughing at the whole situation. afterwards, he joined me in the smoking room for a quick one and he said i was absolutely correct as if i was now "deemed a security risk" because of the "aftermarket ssss", i needed to be kept/politely detained where i was.

so given my situation and the others mentioned above, the sugestion that bart made of having a way to remove "aftermarket ssss", is the right, and most logical way to go

Yet another example of the airlines and TSA providing "World Class Security, World Class Service"

actually in this case, i don't fault ua but rather the parameters they were told to use-the g/a couldn't believe what happened and it's the progamming that needs to be changed but you can't change the programming without someone changing the rules so i put the blame on the tsa "system"