The 4 SSSS ?
 

888888888888

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.

*************

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.

You have the same last name as your parents, right? I was not a name partner at the law firm, and OP stated his wife uses a government credit card.

Where is OIA? Couldn't find it in airport look-up.

**********************

deleted

MCO stands for Mouse Country! ;)

Anyway I have had corporate travel agents put my tickets on a corporate credit card. Never an SSSS.

I have only gotten SSSS once; it was on UA. I have no idea what triggered it and they refused to de-select me. I promptly refunded the ticket (telling them why) and bought a new ticket on AA. No SSSS on that ticket and off to the gate I was.

security money well spent.:td::td::td:

I have paid cash at the airport for a US-BKK ticket. I have bought one way tickets. A friend paid for couple of my tickets with her CC. Never SSSS.

The only time I did get SSSS was at the begining of a simple domestic R/T at my homeport. I used my CC to purchase the ticket. The TA knows me so she offered to take the SSSS out but I was running late so I declined. No biggie.

Nope, if that was the case then just about everyone would be secondaried, since most business travelers have corporate accounts that book/bill tickets and I doubt that couples and families traveling put each ticket on seperate PNRs under each person's credit card. Plus, I've booked plenty of travel for the fiance for her to fly solo to come visit (international travel) and never had a problem.

If this sticker was placed on a USA passport by anyone other than a member of the State Department's passport division, it is a violation of 18 USC 1543 as an invalid alteration/mutilation of a USA passport.

Agreed-- it is just more evidence of what a farce SSSS really is. Of course, we already knew that anyway . . .

Stickers go on the outside of passports all the time.

If you don't like what the sticker says, remove it. @:-)

Question at law
 

Who of you are right?

I've gotten stickers put on the outside of my passport many times - by immigration officers, airline employees, and others. But the only people who do anything INSIDE my passport are customs/immigration types.

what about visa stickers placed by foreign immigration services?

The two are not mutually exclusive-- illegal things "happen all the time" notwithstanding that they may be illegal.

As far as the poster's assertion that it is a violation of US law, no normal person would interpret that law to apply to stickers on the outside of a passport.

It is very common in Europe to place a security sticker on the back of US and other passports.

Danes are criminals and Danish police are criminals too
 

I agree with you on that! In fact, most of my countrymen are revolting and amoral criminals despite the fact that most never see the inside of a jail cell.

When I check in at CPH it is the norm that my baggage claim tags are affixed too the front, or more often back, of my passport. Quite annoying but hardly a big crime. The Danish police would laugh if I were to complain about that. Yet, they prefer to laugh at their citizens, when they are not killing them.

I've only been SSSSed three times so far. Once was on CO on a company-purchased ticket. Oddly enough, I was travelling with a TV crew, all of whom were toting as much gear as they could as carryons, whilst all I had was one tiny overnight bag and a book. Out of the 8 of us, I got the SSSS.

The other two occasions were last-minute-ticket-syndrome. Once at MKE, when an AA flight I had boarded went mechanical and they put me on YX & AK to get home, and once at FLL - my husband and I switched our flights from AC to US at the last minute to avoid weather cancellations in YYZ and we both got the SSSS. I had brought back some mini-jams from Harbour Island (all <100ml and sealed in a Kippie, of course!) and the TSA agents had fun checking each jam to make sure it really was guava and not some kind of fruity tropical explosive.

I want to comment but am bound by Federal Regulations not to discuss this further.

Also, as has already been discussed on numerous other threads, the SSSS could be part of the TSA watchlist processing (currently run by the carriers), or could be the 'random' component that is part of CAPPS (TSA rules but run by the carriers).

:rolleyes:

Oh, I'm sure you can comment if you want to - this is an anonymous forum. Either way, we've already discussed a number of ways to get SSSS

1) last minute ticket purchase
2) last minute or multiple seat changes (not seen for awhile as a trigger, used to be a big flag on AA)
3) cash or traceless payment
4) purchase not made by passenger
5) one-way flight (hit and miss on this one)
6) open-jaw flight (hit and miss on this one)
7) certain CAPPS tracks - being flagged for seating or flight proximity with a person flagged by CAPPS or on watch list, or taking multiple flights with someone on a watch list
8) airline agent manual add - being flagged by airline employee

The only terrorist who is going to be caught by using SSSS screening is Mr. Ahmed Magoo.

That has to do w/ forgery or false use. As long as they don't sticker the interior no one seems to have a problem.

I buy tix for my ex-wife and kid on separate itineraries on my credit card. They never get flagged. Buy them thru my UA account and they have UA MP numbers so maybe that helps.