Lifestyle and travel influencer couple Claire and Peter found four unusual letters on the corner of their boarding passes: ‘SSSS’. So what does the code actually mean?
Lifestyle and travel influencer couple Claire and Peter were surprised upon finding four unusual letters on their boarding passes before a flight.
The pair quit their office jobs in Texas to travel the world three years ago. And ever since, they’ve been stopping off in dozens of different countries.
They haven’t shied away from controversial or remote destinations – visiting places like Socotra in Yemen, Jordan and even Antarctica. But while they’ve had a brilliant time, it has had one impact on their boarding passes.
A recent video montage shows the two in an airport lounge and going into a plane, showing their passports and flight tickets, which have ‘SSSS’ printed on its corner.
The acronym stands for ‘Secondary Security Screening Selection’, and is a type of “extra screening” used as an airport security measure in the United States, with citizens from certain countries being subjected to it by default.
Passengers with the ‘SSSS’ stamp go through an intensive screening process that often includes interrogations, pat-downs, luggage checks, metal detectors and even tests to uncover possible explosive materials.
The criteria used by the TSA (USA’s Transport Security Administration) is not publicly disclosed, although some known factors are if the passenger has a one-way reservation, has paid for their tickets with cash, has recently been to a considered “high-risk” country, frequently travels to “unusual” destinations, or has a similar name to someone on a security watch list.
Flyers coming from regions in the Middle East or Africa report the most ‘SSSS’ checks, and unusual travel patterns also seem to trigger suspicion – such as quick turnarounds at destinations, long flights with quick returns, or last minute bookings to other countries.
Claire and Peter’s experience wasn’t detailed in the social media post, but sparked a flurry of comments from people with airport horror stories to share.
One wrote: “I got this once. I asked the gate staff. They didn’t know what it meant. I asked again as I boarded. They said they didn’t know. I boarded. An agent boarded the plane, deplaned me for a bag check and interview and then let me re-board. I left my husband holding our newborn and caring for our three other small children alone. And I was deeply embarrassed being marched off a plane as others boarded, going against the flow. Just frustrating that the gate staff didn’t know and let me board.”
Another wrote: “I got this on my way to New York in August. They treated me like a criminal, threw all my stuff all over the bench and basically told me I had too much stuff (I didn’t, they were just in a horrible mood) before shoving my bag back to me and leaving me to pack the mess they made.”
Seeing the dreaded four letters on your boarding pass might mean a delay on your journey, as such special security checks reportedly last anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours. One commenter said: “Once I was traveling through three different airports in the US on the same day and I got SSSS three times! And for one connection flight that I missed (because of all the long checks) they had to issue me with another boarding pass… that also had SSSS. They were so embarrassed! They opened every tube of travel sized toiletries twice within an hour! I’m not American so I thought it was because of my foreign passport. It was a LOOONNNGGG day and very late by the time I reached my hotel!”
Another pointed out that the location Claire and Peter were coming from – the Indian Ocean island of Socotra – as perhaps being what earned them their ‘SSSS’: “Nice! SSSS is just proof you’ve been traveling to someplace interesting! Socotra technically being in Yemen probably not looked on too kindly by the TSA, which isn’t exactly know for its nuance.”
Others reacted to the post with humour, saying about the couple’s frequent travels: “Gonna be wild when we find out these two are actually spies and this has been their cover.”
