It's so rare that I thought I'd post. Since I usually buy last minute, one way travel tickets, I always get to enjoy SSSS. Today at Newark the agent was insanely nice. He wasn't your run-of-the-mill polite person but rather he asked "how was your day?" "where are you going?" etc. He didn't give me SSSS and I thought he was being nice, but as I learned later he had just forgotten. However, even when he was performing the SSSS he didn't make it seem awkward at all. This is in sharp contrast to last time when the guy made me sit down in the corner sheepishly as if I'd done something really naughty in primary school.

Is there someone/somewhere I can email to compliment this nice chap?

Cheers,

Well, it's maybe a little late now, but the comment sheets you can get at the checkpoint work for compliments as well as critiques and criticisms. Don't know if it'd ever get to the screener in question, but you might try the comment page on TSA's website. Worth a shot, anyways.

It's always worth complimenting screeners who can remember that both they and those they are screening are human beings, and who choose to act with courtesy rather than abuse of authority.

I wouldn't be so quick with the compliment. You were probably undergoing a SPOTnik interrogation.

We had a very friendly TSA guy at IAH on Friday and we wondered how he got through. Either he won't last or they will ruin him. I hope I'm wrong.

bingo! simple questions like "how was your day?" "where are you going?" etc. are the tipoff (and your response should be, "please spot someone else if you don't mind" [or something similar])

you also mentioned that "he didn't give me SSSS and I thought he was being nice, but as I learned later he had just forgotten." this leads me to believe that you were not SSSS'd but again, spot-ed. if your bp had the magic SSSS on it and he "forgot", the g/a sure as anything would have caught it as they are supposed to look for a stamp or something similar showing that your were maSSSSaged.

Careful, I hear the black helicopters hovering. Everything doesn't need to be a conspiracy.

I'm not really sure what this spot checking thing is - but regardless - he was so nice that I didn't even care. This is what happened - there was SSSS on my bp. He looked at it quite thoroughly and presumably saw the SSSS (or so I thought) and gave the BP back. The g/a saw that it wasn't marked and marched me right back.

Cheers,

Not necessarily ... when I have to pat someone down, I usually try to make small talk to make the procedure a little less unfriendly, and generally I ask them where they're headed ... it's a pretty safe question, no?!

He may have been nice, but he didn't do his job, which resulted in you having to leave the gate and march all the way back to security to receive your secondary screening.

Also the effectiveness of the secondary was greatly reduced as you had already entered the sterile area and could have stashed the prohibited item that would have been found during secondary somewhere in the sterile area. If secondary screening wasn't such a joke, I would be upset that this breach of security occurred.

More screeners are getting help these days, but it takes a little while to get the dosage right.

given what the op originally stated, it appeared that he/she was not a SSSSelectee but seeing what was added, it looks like the screener screwed up. i'm also gonna add that i think the g/a screwed up as if a SSSSelectee has been missed and makes it to the gate area, the screeners need to come to them not the pax going to the screeners as you now have an "un-screened pax" roaming around the terminal and god help us all if that pax decides not to board the flight. dump da-dump-dump, duuuuuuuuump

now as to screeners making small talk, i get that all the time due to my orthopedic shoes and orthotics and i have no problem with it but i am also very leery as to what they ask (spot questions vs legitimate ones-actually had a screener wearing the same style shoes as me [but black vs white] and asked about how to get custom othotics). don't know if that makes sense or not

BDO's (SPOTniks) do not function as TSO's. The only time a BDO will operate inside the CP is if they have a "pull". They do not wand people, they do not pat people down, they do not swipe shoes. A TSO working on a CP is not a BDO. BDO's are not screeners.

The gate agent made you return to security?

What would this same gate agent do if you were issued an SSSS BP in the sterile area? It happens -- sometimes it is being re-scheduled on another carrier, a couple of times I've have a separate one-way ticket for the last leg of a journey (better flight time, fare .. typically a good reason). I fly airline A and arrive into the secure area of a hub on one ticket, I check-in with airline B inside the secure area because they have the best schedule to my destination, ticket is one-way because I'm doing the reverse on another carrier, and I'm suddenly an SSSS.

Take ORD as an example. I often switch between UA and AA at ORD depending on who has the best schedule. Sometimes it's AA to ORD, UA out of ORD and return is all on AA. Other times it can be the reverse.

That's interesting, Cee, because at my airport, when the BDOs have a person of interest, they carry out their additional screening themselves!

How's that for some consistent inconsistency? LOL

I did say that they only time they function on the checkpoint is if they have a "pull" (a person of interest). Our BDO's will do the bag checks, but have a CP TSO do the wanding. My main point is that BDO's do not spend their shift functioning as a TSO on a CP. If a pax comes thru, and gets screened, it is a regular CP TSO doing the screening, not a BDO. Everyone on here thinks that if a TSO is being friendly and making small talk, they must be a SPOTnik. I am trying to stress the fact that a BDO does not work as a TSO on a CP, so perhaps people can know the difference between a BDO and a friendly TSO.