Sherab Sherab

Same to me, not my wife or child 3 years years ago. I was carrying my child with me and gave backpack to my wife. couple of security check agents shouted I got SSSS but they didn't bother me thankfully and didn't stop me.

My wife unfortunately got her first ever SSSS on her return trip from YYZ on UA flight and she was with our minor child. I applied redress for her anyway cos it is ugly to get SSSS when you have a minor autistic child with you at airports. I wish Redress STOPS this SSSS thing but unfortunately it doesn't help much!

cayohueso

I have GE and on my return Thanksgiving trip from CUN couldn't get my boarding pass online on AA (but I was able to check-in). Got SSSS'ed. They take it very seriously there. Took over 5 minutes of searching and swiping which completely negated my group 1 boarding number. I also didn't get Pre-Check on my MIA connecting ticket

UKtravelbear

The answer to not getting pre on your conencting flight BP is to go to an AA desk / kiosk at MIA and reprint it and that usually 'restores' it.

Visconti

Have GE/TSA, and I've never gotten SSSS on domestic flights. But, I do get them occasionally when returning from abroad from, say, Europe or SE Asia on both US and foreign carriers. They both assure me it's a directive (I've been selected) from US Customs/Immigration.

Anyone know if it's indeed I've been selected by US Immigration or from the carriers' or their securities contractor?

Randyk47

My one and only SSSS-like extra screening was at the boarding gate of an International flight out of CDG and I suspected at the time it was the security contractor. Nobody was particularly talkative that morning and I had just flown in from Dubai and was exhausted so I just got through the swabbing and extra questions as best and as fast as I could. With my two domestic SSSS the ticket agent insisted it was a random pick by their computer but based on a requirement from TSA that “x” number of passengers get selected. Over the years of reading posts here I’ve been left with the impression there are several routes that can lead to the dreaded SSSS from name to itinerary to random selection to whatever.

Polytonic

After getting SSSS ex-ARN once, I vaguely recall being told by a (very apologetic) security officer that selection was random, and the list is provided by US Customs and Border Patrol.

While this might just be selection bias -- I personally doubt the selection criteria is truly "random" though. My SSSS rate is roughly 60% ex-Europe and maybe in the 20% range ex-Asia. I guess I fit some kind of profile?

Visconti

Received one here on an AA RT SFO/CDG, and assumed it was because of their security contractor. Only reason I can imagine it'd be from US customs is if they'd wanted to ensure I wasn't smuggling? If that's the case, why not just get me with the "X" in SFO and do it right?

One way ticket, ok, I get it. Flying a foreign Airline for the first time, sure. Leaving a borderline hostile nation, perhaps. But, RT to Paris? You've got to be kidding.

While I have no evidence, it's hard to believe it's purely random. If this were true, it'd be the most inefficient approach possible.

In my case, I was on a RT to and fro an ally Nation (France), born in America, returning home to America and charged on American Express on a carrier named American Airlines with whom I've flown at least not only 50+ times, but has all of my personal information. My SSSS was so stupid, it was comical. As I've mentioned, the only reason would be if US customs suspected I may have been smuggling on this particular, out of my many frequent visits to France, trip. And, if this were the case, just trap me with the the "X" in SFO and lock me up there.

If I felt this was carrier driven by, say, AA, I'd never fly them again on general principle if they played any part on sticking me in that SSSS list.

iadisgreat

The US airlines need to designate X% of people (randomly) to be SSSS on top of any USG selectees. That's likely 99% of people on this forum's reason for getting it.

Randyk47

I didn’t then nor now think US Customs and Immigration had anything to do with my gate swabbing and questioning at CDG. I figured it was because of accident inconsistent answers between my wife and I. What happened was I saw a couple of what appeared to be uniformed contract personnel checking passports in kind of a random fashion at our outbound gate (CDG>ATL on DL metal). I told my wife to stay with our bags and I’d go over and see if we needed to check in. The female contractor said she needed to see my passport which I provided. She asked where had I flown in from and I told her Dubai. She asked what was I doing there and I said we’d been on an 18-day cruise from Italy to UAE. She said nothing more than I should send my wife over. When my wife came back she recounted pretty much the same line of questioning except my wife had included our pre-cruise time in Rome and said we’d been traveling for 21 days. Not a big deal but a slightly different version. As for the secondary it was a typical TSA-like swabbing of my carry on, my hands, and shoes. They asked questions about electronics mostly but never searched my carry on. I can’t see any connection to US CBP and nothing occurred the rest of the way home.

GUWonder

It can be any or all of those that cause the hit, but the majority of the SSSS hits are from the airline/airline’s security contractor needing to meet the secondary screening quota. But there are definitely times when it’s DHS/CBP that have put someone up for an SSSS hit for a US-bound flight while the airline/airline security contractor didn’t drive the SSSS hit at check-in; and in the many such situations it can be unrelated to the quota and be a manual hit beyond that and come from CBP.

I have had SSSS hits on domestic connecting flights coming off an international flight that had an SSSS hit. Sometimes the airline reps can reissue the boarding pass in such a way as to get rid of the SSSS hit, but not all of them are able and/or willing to do so. And an attempt to reprint out the boarding pass at the US gateway after the SSSS-hit international flight doesn’t always work .... at least not without manual intervention.

TWA884

Folks,

It is time for the periodic reminder that the Trusted Travelers forum is informational.

Members come here in search of practical information and advice about applying for and using the various Trusted Travelers programs.

Please limit your postings in this thread to sharing experiences of trusted travelers receiving the SSSS designation on their boarding passes and offering advice on how to deal with such situations or minimize their occurrences.

Rants, opinion and commentary about SSSS designations belong in the Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debate forum where we have a thread discussing SSSS on boarding passes:
Future non-informational content will be moved to that thread or summarily deleted without further notice.

Thank you for understanding,

TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

Phaenon

Recently got ssss inbound international to US. Pretty much every single traveler in J had Ssss

damon88

Suspected I had the dreaded SSSS when we couldn’t do OLCI for our NRT-LAX flight today on SQ.

Sure enough discovered at airport check in that I had it printed on my boarding pass (but not my husband) Thankfully it was no more than a minor inconvenience.

Data points: we were flying FC on reward tickets. I have GE. I suspect it was random- perhaps triggered by the fact that our trip was booked as two one-way flights. I also changed our return date a week before we flew to Japan.

We had no issues LAX to NRT 2 weeks ago.

Boraxo

We have the same problem! Every time we fly back from Mexico, Mrs. B receives an SSSS on her BP. This does not happen to anyone else in the family, and it does not matter if we fly back to SFO or LAX, she always gets the SSSS. She has taken numerous domestic and international flights on UA, AA, WN, DL with precheck and no problems. It's very strange but I do not believe it is random because it happens every time on a one-way ticket from Mexico. She believes this began after she flew TLV-SFO, we all know the Middle East can generate SSSS.

Wondering if there is perhaps a match with another person on the list, or just programming that flags one-way international flights?

Is there a way to get off the SSSS list? I know there are procedures for contesting the "no fly" and using FOIA for GE denial, but haven't read anything about SSSS. Everybody in my family has had GE and precheck for years.

GateGuardian

Get her a redress number and make sure it's added in whenever she flies. When she gets/renews her passport, get a new redress #. It might not be her, but someone with the same name that has caused issues in the past. Even with a redress #, she may get SSSS, but my experience is that it is much less frequently.