One possible way to beat the system -- travel with young kids. My wife and I have been on about 12 flights since 9/11 and we have never been selected. Could it be the presence of our 5 and 2 year old kids?

In the first 5 months post 9/11, I was somehow selected about 50% of the time.
In the last 5 months, hardly at all. I (felt that I) was using the same techniques consistently to avoid being selected.

I was flying ONT-LAX-SFO this afternoon and at LAX took a VDB. No problem grabbing a free ticket and a seat on the next flight to SFO 20 minutes later.

When the CSR handed me my new boarding pass, it had the infamous S-S-S-S on it. I asked why when the boarding pass for my original flight didn't have it. She said that when you're rebooked, you're automatically selected for secondary screening.

So I went to the gate for my new flight and the screeners were sitting and chatting. I asked if they could do the screening now so I could board with the 1Ks and get overhead bin space. They insisted that I wait until the flight was called for boarding, which happened about 45 seconds later.

Apparently, now if you volunteer, not only do you get a difficult to use ticket instead of travel credit, but you also get a secondary screening. Oh, by the way, I was sitting on the plane of my original flight when the CSR came on board just before closing the door to get one more volunteer. Is there a place between gate 81 and gate 83 at LAX to pick up contraband?

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Biggest Little 1K (in The Biggest Little City) In The World

by this afternoon, i assume you mean 7/7. what flight were you on ont-lax? i was on 6119 at 1136am.



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f

I for one am glad they have stopped searching the first person who got in line and are selecting somebody from the first five or six. It became way too easy to get around just by being the second or third person in line, then you were pretty much guaranteed not to be picked. It's totally useless if you know where to stand to get picked or not (as a flyertalk person was quoted in USA Today on Friday saying how to avoid being searched at the gate).

While I agree they should be useless, the fact they still from time to time find things that were missed at the first check prove they are not totally useless.

I have seen families with young kids selected numerous times, most recently at PDX on July 3. I think at PDX they do this because its "easier." SFO seems most interested in the physically challenged and elderly.

She was wrong. I have been rebooked twice since March (once due to flight cancellation, once for VDB). I have never been sentenced to SSSS.

Also, both times I received travel credits instead of free ticket vouchers.

lol!

(edited to fix UBB code)

[This message has been edited by Rare (edited 07-08-2002).]

I have been rebooked several times in the last month (from ONT to SFO, e.g) and didn't get the SSSS. I even volunteered my seat in Fort Wayne on AA and was taken and put on a United Express flight an hour later. I was sure that this (changing airlines, one way) would trigger the SSSS (that's what I had always been told), but it didn't. I have used the Easy Check-in at ORD about 10 times and never got the dreaded SSSS, even with an upgrade. BTW, it seems that almost 50 percent of the time the machine will tell you to go to an agent to complete the transaction if you have an upgrade confirmed (which I did on every use of the machine). So inconsistency is still consistent with United.