The 4 SSSS ?
 

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she put that on your passport?? That is totally wrong and should have been reported to the airline Ground Security Coordinator and the screener's supervisor. Are you sure it was marked on your actual passport?

The 'SSS' is the secret:rolleyes: code which indicates you need a secondary inspection - if she pulled you out of line, then you were either 'SPOTted' (deemed suspicious) or she didn't like you for some reason.

'SSSS' is usually issued on the BP automatically by the airline if you meet certain selection criteria (one way ticket, pay with cash, etc.) - those are hard to remove.

If a screener every writes SSSS or marks your bp for secondary and another checkpoint is available to you in the terminal, just leave the line, go back to the airline to get a new BP (use the kiosk or tell the agent you lost the bp) and go to a new checkpoint.

Wow, she wrote that on your Passport? Technically, that Passport is property of the issuing Government and is illegal to tamper with them. If you can find out who did that, i would contact airport officials and law enforcement.

Clearly, the TSA agent didn't like something about you and wanted to make sure that you got "extra attention" and more searches throughout your trip. Were you dressed in a very unusual manner? Did you have an unusual amount of luggage? Basically, did you seem at all out of the ordinary that might have attracted the attention of TSA?

flualot, welcome to FlyerTalk and the Travel Safety/Security Forum!

I got the SSSS on my BPs going LHR-SFO-SYD in late November. On the return trip as well. Only extra gate security going into the USA (that is: leaving LHR for SFO and leaving SYD for SFO). Going out of the USA, I gather United Airlines do not care if the plane is blown up.

Did she write it or was it a sticker?

A lot of people get this and don't have a criminal record. It's another one of those stupid "Security" measures. Sorry you had a bad experience :(.

Check out the Glossary where you can find out what many of these terms mean. Hope you'll find it helpful.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

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Sounds like she's on the "do not fly" list, a completely useless list of over 100k names that sound like names of people suspected of being bad guys. Anyone with a similar name gets this abuse, while the real terrorists simply fly under other than their own names.

Yet another example of TSA procedures inconveniencing law abiding citizens while causing al Qaeda types to chuckle.

Not sure if your trip is now over, but I hope you've removed the stickers - next time, just remove them after you clear security or get new BPs, remove the stickers and find another checkpoint.

If I were to guess, I would say I was probably redflagged for:
1) Booking flight only a week before
2) Flying out of LHR while being resident of CPH
3) Being upgraded by someone else

OP's wife makes the mistake of using a credit card in someone else's name to buy the tickets for her flights. One of the criteria for assigning SSSS is purchasing ticket with a credit card with a different name than the passenger. When I started traveling extensively in October 2002, I was instructed to use the law firm credit card to book flights through a travel agency. Wonderful airlines assigned SSSS on virtually every flight. A$$ clowns:mad:

Strange. When my parents bought my flights using their credit card, I never got SSSSed.