There are 4 letters no one wants to see on their boarding pass: SSSS.
If you Google SSSS and bypass Ritter’s Disease (a.k.a. Staphylococcal Scalded Skin Syndrome) and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, you’ll see all the adjectives and other descriptors people have used for SSSS:
- What you don’t want to see on your boarding pass
- The dreaded SSSS boarding pass
- Annoyance
- Horror known as SSSS
- It’s not good
Anyway, SSSS stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection (or Secondary Security Screening Selectee). It’s also sometimes called a “quad” (4 Ss. I get it). Anyway, it means you’ve been selected to go through additional inspection (i.e. metal detector, body scanner, full-body pat down, TSA agents going through your luggage, hands and feet being swabbed, etc.) before you can continue on to your gate.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has a list of people whose names will be marked for SSSS, although no one knows how many people (it’s said to be in the tens of thousands) or who’s on the list (although it’s suspected that people from certain countries are subject to it by default). They also have a list of criteria for SSSS screening that they don’t make public, but at least some of it is believed to be:
- Passengers with a one-way reservation
- Passengers who pay cash for their tickets
- People who have traveled to a high-risk country (Türkiye and Georgia are mentioned quite a bit)
- Random selection
If you happen to get SSSS once in a while, it’s no big deal. Assuming you’ve gotten to the airport early enough, as is always suggested, you should get through the secondary screening with no issues.
However some people get SSSS all the time. They may have the same name as a suspected terrorist. Or they do a lot of one-way travel due to reasons. Or they don’t have a credit card (some don’t) so they pay for their plane ticket in cash. Whatever.
There may still be a way to stop the SSSSs from happening. You get something called a redress number.
A redress number (it used to be called a Redress Control Number) is issued to travelers who are part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP. Yep, someone got paid to invent that). It’s used to help travelers fix recurring security issues, including getting SSSS on their boarding pass on a regular basis (it’s also used for people who continually have issues at the U.S. border). A redress number alerts the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that a traveler may have been incorrectly added to a security watch list.
The Department of Homeland Security has an entire page, with links that have more info, all devoted to obtaining a redress number. It includes issues such as:
- Should I use DHS TRIP? (read: who is eligible to get a redress number)
- How to use DHS TRIP (what they need to do to get a redress number)
- Tracking your inquiry (once you’ve done all the required paperwork)
- Redress control numbers (quick facts, additional info, etc.)
- Additional links for domestic and international travelers
- More info about traveler screening
Again, redress numbers aren’t needed for someone who happened to get one SSSS on their passport. But if you (or your kid…that’s always a good one) get them on a fairly regular basis, applying for and (hopefully) getting a redress number might be a resolution for difficulties you/they experience during travel screenings at transportation hubs such as airports.
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13 comments
If you apply for Global Entry and are NOT approved, you will be blacklisted and will certainly be subjected to rescreening and re searched when entering the USA. Once you prove you are not a threat, you will be assigned a redress number which you should enter on every airline reservations for the rest of your life. You should be okay (less of a threat). Yes, big brother is tracking you.
Furthermore, I have no criminal history and I am a registered nurse by profession, which requires that I have a clean background check and I was denied my Global Entry application. I feel like hiring an attorney to find out what is on my profile at the dept of Homeland security. Anyway I have a redress number and I’m okay with that.
Thank you
I had Global Entry AND Pre-check, but was still flagged on my return flight from Nairobi a few years ago. I’ve been flagged 3 other times in the past 16 or so years. Not really a regular occurrence, but still frustrating, since it always occurs on a return flight, and on the only airline (or alliance partner) I use. It could have been any of a number of triggers: 2 different airlines (but partner airlines) in & outbound or the fact it was big, scary Africa. /s (Nairobi is a major world capital with a UN office, not to mention a major tourist destination, for crying out loud.)
Finding convenient flights that may happen to involve 2 different carriers or open-jaw flights should not count as 1-way, as we’re obviously returning home – & it’s always on that return flight I get the dreaded SSSS.
I was an AA Executive Platinum and have had TSA Pre for years and even Clear before that (when Clear just started). My last 3 international trips had the SSSS on the return flight. I asked the agent at MIA customs and he said it could have been because I got my new passport via a service (my old one had been expired for a few years). But my partner did the same and has no status and never got the SSSS. Last year we finally got our Global Entry (mine was approved in a couple of days. My partner took over 2 months) so hopefully that will fix this issue.
We have TSA PreCheck and Global Entry (and have had them for years) yet I get zapped with SSSS nearly every time we return home from France. I suppose I look terrifying with my white hair and 4’10” frame!
I was traveling a lot (for me, 7 or 8 trips between March and September) one summer while freelancing. At least once per trip (sometimes outbound, sometimes return) I would get flagged SSSS. I knew the routine as well as the TSA folks. I assume the issue was with the tickets, as the people I worked for booked them. It wasn’t my name, at the time it was very unique, as in if you googled my last name, there were nine people in the US with the same last name and I was related to 8 of them.
I have never seen ssss on any of my tickets,But I get a patdown after going through the scanner(yes,the one you hold your arms up high)every single time.ive been back and forth to Scotland where I’m from but I live in the USA.must be my name is all i can think of.oh well I’m ready for my usual patdown end of May when i head to Scotland.
In the early days of stepped up security I got pulled all the time. Finally, an agent in Tucson said, I can see how many times you have been pulled aside. I cannot tell you how to stop it but let me ask you one question. Have you ever thought about including your middle initial on your flight reservations? Bingo! Problem solved. I was embarrassed I never thought of something so obvious.
Ok, so lived in Turkey for 2 years and almost immediately was flagged with 4S kiss of death. Finally did the redress number and asked them to release the info they have on me. According to freedom of information act, they have to release it, unless it’s “terrorist” related. After all the paperwork and explaining the got the wrong girl, got a letter back from HS saying “we can neither confirm nor deny…” and essentially told me expect delays and searches in the future. I moved home 8 years ago and still a 4S when I try to enter back in from travel. I expect it will be the rest of my life.
Why does having a middle initial stop triggering the quad S? I don’t have a middle name. Can’t pretend I have one. I’m tired of extra pat downs and swabbing my hands.
I travel regularly to Medellin Colombia, and I either get SSSS on my return, or I get pulled for extra screening by Customs and Biarder Partol. Apparently my name is the same as a known drug trafficker. I am a regular international traveler, and only get pulled during return from Colombia. I have Global Entry and Clear. I applied for a redress number, did not get one issued, and continue to be hassled each time I return. My next step is to reach out to my Congregational Representative, Nancy Pelosi, to see if her office can assist me.
It is beyond frustrating.
And they say Colombia is the best place for retirement. LOL..!