Business Travel (code SSSS)

Thrusday, Feb 17 10:30pm - SFO Terminal 3

It’s been one very interesting day. I am writing this from the United terminal at SFO, 10:35pm awaiting my flight (delayed of course) back to Seattle after a business trip that I cut short.

Originally scheduled to fly in Thursday Feb. 17 for meetings on what is basically my client’s largest and most important product, to plan for the next major release. Some of the people I was scheduled to meet are part of the companies executive staff (including a couple of V.P.’s). By some oversight on the part of the client they had neglected to contact me within before my departure to let me know that the plans had changed. Basically, they paid for me to warm a seat on someone’s airplane for a few hours, hang out at their office (although I feel I provided some critical feedback to one of the engineers on how to solve a problem that had been plaguing them for some time – so not all was a waste as far as the customer is concerned).

For me however, it was a huge inconvenience to leave my family on 5 days notice, get up at 3:00am to make the 6:00am flight out of SeaTac so I could be at the customers San Francisco offices on time ready to work.

After calling the people who scheduled the meetings and requested me to travel to SFO I found out that they had simply neglected to contact me and let me know I did not have to go. Thanks. J

All was not lost. I was able to cancel my hotel and switch my flight to this evening. Or at least that’s what Expedia Corporate Travel (whom I plan to never use again) told me several times on the phone as I tried to adjust my plans.

Following the cancellation of the hotel and informing the client that I would be returning to my home office I find that the seats Expedia said were available on the return flights were in fact not only unavailable but the flights were all so over-sold I would not be allowed to purchase a standby ticket. They were also unable to help me book fare on any other than the original airline. Thus my quest for a return flight began.

Working from A to Z I visited every ticket counter in the airport (I tried to get good flight info on the in house phone but it was more than worthless). After much walking and just about giving up I found a late fright on United Airlines that would get me into SeaTac around 1:00am (and home around 2:30am). Bingo! I would not have to sleep in the airport!

So I bought my one-way ticket for $215.00 and headed for the security gate. That’s where the fun began. I travel a lot and I have the security screening thing down to a system that gets me through fast and clean. I always fly Alaskan Airlines where I have my own corporate account, frequent flyer plans, the whole nine yards. They treat me well.

Unfortunately United Airlines does not know me from Adam. All they know is that I’m a male, with no checked bags on a one-way ticket. Well, I had the security officer my boarding pass as I always do, expecting to be directed to the nearest lane. No such luck.

The screener checking ID’s and passes suddenly yells across the very crowded security area to set up a ‘box’ and they quickly herd me into a little roped off section where I stand watching many people filter though the checkpoints.

They shut down the left most lane completely, shooed all the other passengers though and then put away the gray personal belongings bins and got out the brown ones (I quickly discovered that those singled out for special screening MUST use the brown bins, interesting) and then blockaded the area so they could process me all by my self with my own basically private screening lane.

Everything was checked for bomb residue with the swabs. This took some time as I had to very full carryon bags. Following this and my safely passing the initial metal screening I was sent to ‘The Chair’s where my feet and legs where carefully scanned. My bags were brought before me (about 4’ away) and while I stood with my arms out (being scanned) I got to observer them go thought EVERYTHING in my bags. Not that I had anything criminal or embarrassing, but.. it was not exactly what I wanted to have done since I pack those things carefully to get them down to the required size.

It only delayed me about 5 min. more than my normal security screening experience. They were very polite, I was very polite and when it was all over I got a good tip on where to eat in the terminal (and it was a good tip at that).

This is when I discovered, I think, why I was singled out for such extraordinary screening (it took a while to put the bits together including some comments that the security screener made at the time that did not make sense but now make complete sense).

Basically, United Airlines flagged my boarding pass for what I call Super Secret Security Screening (or SSSS). They reason I think this is the way the ID checker grabbed my pass and circled the letters ‘SSSS’ that were on my boarding pass (something I’ve not seen on any of my passes before).

Following my screening the last screener lined out the ‘SSSS’, and had his supervisor sign off on it, then handed it back, saying ‘Now the Airline will know you have been properly screened’. Huh? OH! Right.. the airline flagged me for the screening when I bought the ticket, not the security team, they were just following the instructions of the airline to protect their property and passengers from a criminal sociopath (males buying one-way tickets with no checked baggage).

It was an unusual need, having to buy a one-way ticket and on a trip originally planned for 2 days there was no need for checked bags. A simple combination of conditions put me in the category of individuals needing a good looking over. And I guess I cannot blame them.

To add just a tiny bit of irony to the story, the flight that I am about to board is a United Airlines Boeing 757 that originated from Logan Field (Boston). Eerily similar to the type of flight selected by those that attacked our nation on September 11, 2001. I really can’t blame them at all and honestly I’m glad they are doing whatever they feel they practically can to prevent such an event from happening ever again.

I just plan to avoid buying any more one-way tickets unless I have plenty of time to spend with the TSA.