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More TSA SSSSilliness

March 13, 2007

By now everyone — including the bad guys — know that being designated as a “selectee” for further screening is almost always a totally random thing. The airline draws your name from the passenger list and generates a boarding pass with “SSSS” written across it. It’s your lucky day!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think the TSA has done a fine job lately, considering that it has had to do more (like rid the world of dangerous liquids and gels) with less (a pared-down workforce). But the system that selects these passengers appears to have a loophole that one reader of this site, and yours truly, has used a time or two.

Here’s how it worked for my reader, to whom I offer anonymity lest he face what he calls “the double-anal probe” before his next flight.

“I had printed out my boarding passes yesterday morning, so of course, no gate was assigned,” he wrote. The boarding pass for the first leg had the dreaded “SSSS” on it. The other one didn’t.

“I simply switched the pieces of paper,” at the screening area, he says.

An agent smiled and waved him through the magnetometer.

This has happened to me as well. I had a boarding pass with an “SSSS” and another one that didn’t, and I chose not to show the incriminating sheet of paper to my agent. She didn’t know any better.

You would expect the folks designating selectees — my understanding is that it’s the airlines — to be consistent and that once you’re tagged, you’re tagged. But I guess that’s not the way it works.

So until they figure this one out, use the boarding pass without the “SSSS” on it and avoid the once-over from your friendly TSA agent.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

14 comments

  • Daryl

    I once booked a flight on American Airlines (LAX to San Jose) round trip, through American Express travel, 3 days before I needed to travel. BOTH segments of the round trip had SSSSS on it. The TSA guys did the pat down, ran me with the magnometer, and one of them in San Jose said “one way trip, eh?” I said “nope, round trip and I got hit on both segments on this trip.” He had no answer to that.

    That was the only times I had SSSSS on my ticket. I DID once, get selected by TSA for random additional screening without the SSSSS and the trainee TSA agent was assigned to give me the once-over. I think it might have been a training exercise, or maybe I looked especially suspicious that day.

  • R. B.

    Twice I have been coming back from Europe via O’Hare and actually benefited from the “SSSSS” stamp. The queu in Terminal 1 can be long and sometimes my 2 hour connection is chewed up by delays, immigration lines, etc. Despite having to get the full treatment I made it through security on the pre-select line much much faster than the 50+ cued up in front of me…..

  • Sonia Vining

    I’m not sure all of those “selectees” are random. Flying home from Gatwick on December 27 of last year, I wasn’t hassled going through security — no “SSSSS” on my boarding pass — but at the gate, I was told that I’d been selected for a second screening. It was a thorough patdown and bag search; I didn’t mind, since a) I had nothing to hide and b) I’d rather they be doing extra screening if something has triggered it. I’m proof positive that those selectees aren’t (only) racial profiles; a white 5’4″ American woman isn’t exactly the typical model for a terrorist. The only thing I can guess is that I’d been hopping from country to country pretty quickly — I visited Amsterdam and Berlin as well as London within the 5 days I traveled — and that many stamps in my passport may have put up a red flag.

  • B.C.

    My son was selected for special screening. He was 5 years old!!! They asked him where he was going (Disneyland!), as well as checked his backpack of toys for drug residue. And they were serious!!! I was laughing so hard. Im not sure how they pick these people, but seriously…..cant they put just a little more thought into this??

    :)

  • Stuart

    Here is something that might scare you more than a unionized TSA. The TSA announced yesterday that they are cutting the hours of pt employees to 20 hours a week. They did this with the full knowledge that they would lose an estimated 50% of their personnel. This will affect the safety of the air traveling public in ways a union never would. They are decimating the lives of dedicated officers, the safety of the flying public and the security of our country because of their fear of a union.

  • Pam DeVoe

    Last year my 3 year old grandson and I were selected for additional screening at the Colorado Springs airport. The other person selected was a young man with a small puppy. As my grandson was waiting for his pat-down I gave him a cookie. Right next to us the young man was told that the puppy would have to be taken off the leash. Neither of us thought this was a good idea, but he did as he was told and predictably the puppy made a bee-line for the cookie and then took off down the concourse with all the TSA people chasing after it! So much for airline security, but it was a wonderfully funny scene.

  • MrBadExample

    OH Please Stuart!!!

    The TSA couldn’t find their arse with both hands in a phone booth with a flash light.

    They are all Wannabe L.E.O’s who couldn’t pass the psych eval with a real Law Enforcement Agency. They are one step below Mall Security guard, because in most states Mall Security guards are allowed to be armed.

    TSA has NEVER, repeat NEVER stopped a terrorist plot at the screening area. The plots that have been foiled are the ones foiled by solid Police work done by REAL police persons.

  • http://www.myspace.com/flightmeister Douglas G.

    I thought passengers who were assigned the dreaded “SSSS” was prohibited from printing out their passes online and had to obtain them right at the airport counter?

  • Heinrich H

    Same t-shirt different day. Round trip to San Antonio (American), flagged both ways. Asked the TSA the big “W” question (What th’…) and was told the AIRLINE had flagged me because either, this was a one-way flight (it wasn’t) or I have the same name as someone on the dreaded No-Fly list. When I asked who to speak to at TSA to find out more, I was stone-walled and referred to my airline. American can’t even deliver baggage or get flights off on time so I doubt that will do any good. I had no idea there was any connection with “foreign sounding names,” I have been flying commercially for many years. I don’t deny that we are moving towards a police state, but this is a quantum leap.

  • http://n/a Kimberly W

    The TSA officer is supposed to check your boarding pass as you walk in, making sure it is the RIGHT boarding pass. Maybe they weren’t as strict about it back when you guys were able to bypass the selectee system. Also, the vast majority of the time it is the airline, and not TSA that designates you as a selectee.

    Some of the SSSS designations are random, and some are not. Some reasons you can be selected are: if you don’t have an ID, have an ID that doesn’t look like you, name and ID don’t match, MRS. vs MR., you are on the terrorist watch list or no-fly list, etc. Additionally, TSOs can mark you with SSSS for the aforementioned reasons, plus if you are acting suspicious. There are some TSOs that are trained to do that.

    Also, even if you don’t have SSSS then you can still be referred for additional screening. The obvious reasons being: alarming the metal detector and wearing super bulky clothing (not so obvious to some people). Also, TSA personnel are required to do random screening. You may not look suspicious or have done anything wrong, it truly is random. Also, trainees are encouraged to do random screening.

    Oh, and the TSA does not look for drugs, as one person had mentioned. They are never looking for drugs. However, if they come across them then they are required to report you to the police.

  • joshua

    I am South Asian and the other day I was travelling to ElPaso and I didn’t know about this SSSS thing eventhough I was always given special treatment before. But what ticked off is this, there was this long line at ElPaso and I was put in this special area and no one was there to do the checking. After 15/20 minutes, some one came and took aside and I told them that if you don’t do your job quick enough, I am going to miss my flight and indeed I missed my flight. I was so angry that I missed my flight in just 5 minutes. I said to myself, “next time come early”

  • shruti

    It sort of bugs me when people say things like “why did they select me I am a short white woman” and things like that because it suggests that racial profiling SHOULD be used…

    In my trips to India, I note that they search everyone going on flights within the country. Everyone knows to get there a certain time earlier and everyone goes through an individual screening–they even have little curtained booths for the women for their “privacy.” Each person puts their belongings on the x-ray conveyor and steps up and gets a full wand-down before collecting their baggage.

    My only beef with that is that they usually have two men’s lines and only one women’s line, so the guys get out faster.

  • Claude and Linda Haby

    Will be flying possably in next 11/2 months, for llegal business, any suggestions for destination Panama round trip from San Antonio Texas.

  • Peter

    I’ve only had an SSSS once, on American. I got a one way flight shortly before the flight and I had no luggage. Why did I do that? My flight from Heathrow to LAX was very delayed and American lost my bag. There was only one flight back home that late, and it was in 25 minutes, so the gate agent got me and another guy (solider returning from abroad) boarding passes and we ran from one terminal to the other, hoping to squeeze through security quickly. We figured that’d be easy since we didn’t even have anything with us.

    The pat down took 30 minutes. We thought we were SOL.

    We got lucky though– the plane blew a tire and had to come back for a spare, and we were able to board.

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