Does SSSS status transfer to connecting flights?

[texter]

After reading a SSSS article on Ausbt (would love to paste the link but not allowed by the forum yet) , I wonder whether the security workers in MEL did the correct thing:

I was awarded "SSSS" status on my MEL to LAX boarding pass. At the time I didn't know what the symbols mean, I causally gave both the QF93 and my connecting SAN flight to the officers. They then annotated my SAN boarding pass with "SSSS" (circled and highlighted).

Following arrival to LAX, ground staff refused to give me a priority pass on the basis that my SAN boarding pass is now marked with "SSSS". Instead I had to endure 1hr (!) just to pass immigration. Strangely enough, I was directed to the TSA pre queue at Terminal 4, so didn't have to take off shoes etc...

I shouldn't have given my connecting flight boarding pass to the agents and would have made the whole transfer process easier. But even if it was marked this shouldn't deny me a priority pass through immigration, right?

 

[serfty]

To be honest I don't know what the process is - maybe people make it up on the spot. A SSSS BP's simply represents a fate to be endured.

I personally would have kept the BP's separate in the first place as you indicated would have been better.

 

[sjd]

It is a fate to be endured, we once arrived 5 hours before a US domestic leg of a RTW trip at San Diego and only just managed to catch the flight.

 

[RooFlyer]

So, you had extra US immigration procedure with your SSSS (and, presumably an extra time at Australian security?), but NO extra security for your SAN flight, in spite of the BP being manually marked SSSS?

Automatically I would say that the SSSS isn't transferrable to a connecting flight. If the security gods/computers wanted you to undergo extra security on the connection, it would have printed out on your BP. The fact that some person took it upon themselves to write SSSS on your connecting BP, and this was apparently ignored at the connection end, seems to support that view.

Moral of your story: Don't give security any more rope than is absolutely necessary at any one time, to hang you with.

 

[Fantic125]

I've had SSSS twice on SYD to LAX but it's never transferred onto connecting flights.

It was explained to me by the security person doing the check that it's just a randomly generated audit process, and only done for flights to LOTFAP.

 

[texter]

Maybe MEL security was doing me a favour(!) by marking my onward BP with "SSSS" to indicate that I've already been screened?

Yes, lesson learnt.. (Didn't know what SSSS was before then)

 

[CaviAck]

Couldn't you have asked for a new boarding pass at LAX and just said you misplaced the one SYD gave you?

 

[MelUser]

Precisely. I would have lost the 2nd one and got a reprint at F checkin in LAX.

In fact a reprinted one is better for priority access as the Qantas one with AA flight on it can need some explaining.

 

[texter]

Precisely. I would have lost the 2nd one and got a reprint at F checkin in LAX.

In fact a reprinted one is better for priority access as the Qantas one with AA flight on it can need some explaining.

That's probably why they took my QF printed BP at the Admiral's Club and replaced it with an AA one...

 

[Flying Fox]

My last trip I got stung with SSSS on the first boarding pass and it stuck to me like the proverbial 's#!t to a blanket' for every flight of the whole trip.

 

[N860CR]

I've never actually had the displeasure... What extra security checks do you actually get subjected to?

 

[RooFlyer]

I've never actually had the displeasure... What extra security checks do you actually get subjected to?

For me it was a manual check through of my carry-on, explosives swap through it and a metal-wanding over me, including soles of shoes. No big deal. "Routine" security at LHR can be more bothersome.

 

[JMFK]

SSSS had me a little worried today - first time I'd been subjected...straight to google haha.

Not a big deal, SYD - LAX, done at The gate. Took about 5 minutes including the wait for a security guard to be free.

A quick fondle and explosives test of both bag and palms.

I'll let you know in about 15 hours if it transfers across to US Dom.

 

[zainman]

SSSS had me a little worried today - first time I'd been subjected...straight to google haha.

Not a big deal, SYD - LAX, done at The gate. Took about 5 minutes including the wait for a security guard to be free.

A quick fondle and explosives test of both bag and palms.

I'll let you know in about 15 hours if it transfers across to US Dom.

It can be quite thorough in the USA.

I had one on MEL-LAX and it was at the gate and quite quick. Did not transfer to US domestic but I was on a separate ticket for that leg.

 

[Mattg]

I had the dreaded SSSS a couple of months ago flying into the U.S. Did not have it on my connecting BP, nor did I have any issues after clearing the test at the gate in Brazil.