Ahead of my recent return flight from Central America, I wasn’t able to check in online for my trip, while my husband could. That meant arriving even earlier for our 6 a.m. departure so I could report to the airline customer service counter. After handing over my passport, the agent returned it with my boarding pass. At the bottom of the paper ticket: SSSS. The agent said I’d have to do an extra security screening before boarding. What was the abbreviation, and why did I get it while my husband was spared?
My heart skipped a beat when I saw SSSS on my boarding pass. I couldn’t remember what it meant, but I did remember seeing the internet call it the “dreaded” “kiss of death” and something “you never want to see” on your boarding pass. A quick Google search decoded the abbreviation as Secondary Security Screening Selection and showed that the Transportation Security Administration does not disclose the full criteria of who gets it.
Before I could find out more, I had to catch my flight. I went through the first security checkpoint like every other passenger; once it was time to board, my flight’s gate agent asked me to step aside from the jet bridge entrance into a special area for another security checkpoint. Staff looked through my carry-on bag and swabbed my electronics and parts of my body for testing by a machine that detects traces of explosives. Five minutes later, I was on the plane and ready for takeoff.
Had I been marked because I was flying from El Salvador to D.C.? Or maybe because I’m a journalist? More pressing to me: Was this a one-off or the first of many SSSS flags to come?
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What is SSSS?
Back in Washington, a spokesperson for the TSA told me that the “Quad S” is a standard part of the agency’s layered and “unpredictable security measures, both seen and unseen,” to keep air travel safe.
“In some cases, passengers are randomly selected for enhanced screening,” the agency said in an email.
In other cases, travelers may be flagged because of information gleaned by the intelligence and law enforcement communities.
When you sign up for a flight, you’re opting in to the TSA’s Secure Flight program, which cross-checks your personal information, including the name, date of birth and gender attached to your itinerary, to assess whether you’re a high-risk or low-risk traveler. Are you on a no-fly list or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Do Not Board list? You may be getting flagged for an extra screening based on that cross-check.
“There are certain people who do get flagged all the time,” said John Rose, chief risk and security officer of the travel agency Altour. “One of the main reasons that happens is because their name is very similar or the same as someone on the [No Fly List].”
“It’s happened to people in Congress,” Rose added, referring to Rep. Tom McClintock (R-California), who said he ended up on the No Fly List because he was mistaken for an Irish Republican Army activist.
While there’s no published list of criteria, Rose said people can also get flagged because of their travel history or for having an unusual itinerary, such as flying on a one-way ticket, flying with various airlines on one trip or using multiple passports.
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Who’s getting it?
In an unscientific survey on my Instagram account, I heard from lots of people with Quad S experience. Some said they have gotten it once and never again. Some get it regularly on certain routes, like the travel editor who said they get it every time they fly from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to the United States. A travel writer said that, for them it’s every trip from Iceland to the U.S. Some people are flagged for years at a time, then it has stopped.
More often than not, it’s not a big deal.
“This happens to anyone,” said Rose, who has gotten the Quad S. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to mess with you or throw you in a room for hours; it just means you’re getting a secondary screening.”
But if you are stopped more than once on the same trip or over a short period of time, that could indicate that you’re on a watch list, says Eric Napoli, chief legal officer at the claims-management company AirHelp.
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How to avoid being flagged
Napoli says TSA is also not obligated to provide a reason when requesting additional screening of a passenger. But if it’s happening to you all the time and you don’t have a background that warrants the extra screenings, Rose says you should apply for the Travel Redress program, which can sort issues with travel-related screenings or inspections.
Once you’re approved, you’ll input a travel redress number into your reservation (like you would your PreCheck membership or airline loyalty program number), and “that will help alleviate routine searches, but not the random ones,” Rose said.
But on one-offs, don’t panic.
Napoli says you can refuse the SSSS screening, but you’d probably not be allowed to board your flight. So, instead, “the best thing you can do is to remain calm and cooperate with the TSA agents,” Napoli told me by email.
The TSA said most enhanced search scenarios will go like mine, not derailing your entire trip, just adding about 10 more minutes before you board. It’s a good reminder to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare.
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