SGF (Springfield, MO). So I get my BP and it has SSSS on it. I hand my BP to the TSA ID checker. He examines it like he is being paid by the hour. All of a sudden:

"Mbstone, please return to the ticket counter"

I snatch back the BP and head for the counter.

"You're not supposed to be a selectee. Here's your new boarding pass."



I go back to the security guy and hand him the SSSS-less BP.

"How'd you do that?"

(Imitating Texas accent) "They figured out that ah have a good heart."

"TSA ID checker?" Do you mean the private contractor who IS paid by the hour to check your ID and boarding pass at the checkpoint entrance?

As for the airlines calling you back to the counter, good for you! I wish more airlines would do that. Unfortunately, they seem to not bother with it in the face of common sense. What you have to understand is that even a lot of us TSA screeners are skeptical about the SSSS system, especially when we see very stupid applications of it.

Examples: elderly and frail passengers, wheelchair bound passengers, military personnel in uniform on official travel orders, airline pilots, infants, children and, my all time favorite....musical instruments!!! (At the risk of being redundantly repetitive, a passenger had to purchase an extra ticket for the seat to accomodate his cello which he took as a carry-on. His ticket was "clear," but the one for the cello had SSSS on it!)

My point here is that the airlines CAN adjust boarding passes whenever the computer automatically tags someone for additional screening. Once you're at our checkpoint, however, our hands are pretty much tied. (We can only "de-select" children under 12.)

I once got a SSSS on a codeshare connecting flight, which did not involve going landslide.... made me wonder if TSA was going to come to the gate

This happened to me once, and I was forced to return to the check point when it was time to board

The flight was held for me, holding up all the other pax, all so I could be sent back for a meaningless SSSS (I mean I could have hidden anything I shouldn't have had in the secure area, and then just retrieved it after I passed inspection)

What airline was this? Did you call an airline supervisor? They should have removed it - what you described was an exceptionally stupid response that inconvenienced you and the other passengers. You were already cleared into the sterile area, the code should have been ignored.

I get so when I read nonsense like this

Sweet. Good story, Bart. I'm still chuckling. Gotta remember this one.

A CELLO???!!!

...and, Bart, you still tolerate and support the agency that allows airlines to play you in this way? Absolutely inharmonious with dignity and respect!

Betcha Beethoven and Stradivarius wouldn't have stayed composed!

The airline printed the ticket with the SSSS on it. For a teacher, you certainly do have a way of misreading a lot of posts.

I KNOW the airline did the SSS-ing. But as a TSA agent, weren't your "hands pretty much tied" when the BP came through? Why does TSA let itself be USED by the airlines in such a ridiculous way? It's as though you are the unwitting drones to a bunch of GA's and TA's who can be just as asinine and angry as you feel so many pax's are.

Let's not get carried away. Some of the most unsavory characters play cellos.

With the exception of infants, children and musical instruments, how do you know that these people are what they appear to be?

Plastic ID cards can be faked, people can pretend to be wheelchair bound, uniforms can be purchased with ease.

I'm not an SSSS supporter, but people are always saying stuff about how group X shouldn't be subject to screening, but they never mention how we're supposed to know if someone is actually a member of group X or not. Usually it comes down to a uniform. That's not very secure.

What matters is that they are screened. What matters is that they pass successfully through a metal detector and that their carry-on property is x-rayed, with secondary screening conducted only for the purpose of resolving alarms or whatever cannot be cleared by the primary screening methodologies. Whether traveling in true identity doesn't matter as long as they don't have any weapons or prohibited items.

This is what makes the pre-selection policy such a farce. It gives the illusion of extra security by screening people who have already been cleared by the primary screening method.

There you go again. An "...illusion..." is all SSS amounts to. Yet you tacitly support and reinforce the premise by your ENforcement of it.

Who are you, really? I'm serious! Who are you and what did you do with the TSA screener who posted last?

Bart, I think the airlines just pick the nastiest people in line at the time and SSSS them just to mess with them. Any thoughts on this????

Oh absolutely! I don't doubt that when someone draws negative attention to himself or herself at the ticket counter, they just "happen" to draw the SSSS on the boarding pass. The majority of it is the "luck of the draw," or due to the outdated profile used by CAPPS. However, I think there's a percentage of them who are selected by the airlines just out of spite. Of course, we're the ones left holding the bag and the ones who come out looking like villains.