What Is SSSS on Your Boarding Pass? Everything to Know About the Mysterious Code
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For fliers who haven’t encountered it before, SSSS on a boarding pass stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection. It’s the Transportation Security Administration’s method of selecting passengers for additional security checks. If the acronym appears on your ticket, it means you’ll be subject to an extra-thorough screening—despite having pre-approval through a Trusted Traveler Program such as Clear, NEXUS, Global Entry, or TSA PreCheck. This can extend the boarding process by 15 to 45 minutes (or longer), which is always frustrating if you’re running on a tight schedule.
While some groups of travelers are all too familiar with being flagged for invasive TSA screenings, others glide through security without a hitch—that’s when an SSSS code comes as a real shock.
Despite having visited more than 90 countries, I never encountered an SSSS boarding pass until my husband and I returned from a month-long trip to Turkey and the Republic of Georgia in 2021. Our journey back started smoothly enough—we flew directly from Istanbul to Dallas and breezed through immigration without any issue.
The trouble began immediately afterward: We were SSSS’d flying from Dallas to Minneapolis, from Minneapolis to New Orleans, and from New Orleans back to Minneapolis. Each time, the first sign of a problem was our inability to check in online or at a self-service kiosk. It wasn’t until an airline agent printed our boarding passes that we saw it: the dreaded SSSS.
The TSA agent who scanned our boarding passes asked us to step aside while he radioed his supervisor. “We got a quad,” he said. That’s TSA shorthand for SSSS.
The screening was extensive: My husband and I were separated from our shoes, coats, and electronics; asked to pass through a metal detector and body scanner; and then subjected to a full-body pat down. Our hands and feet were swabbed for trace explosives. Every inch of our carry-ons was unpacked and scrutinized; same for the checked luggage. The TSA agents were polite and professional, but the delay nearly caused us to miss one of our flights.
What triggers SSSS on a boarding pass?
“Years ago, you could travel like a rock star to wherever you liked, on short notice, with no itinerary, pay in cash, stay overnight in party destinations, and do it all on a one-way ticket,” says Frank Harrison, Regional Security Director, Americas at World Travel Protection. “The world has changed.”
One common misconception, says Harrison, is that national aviation authorities like the TSA are the first screening line for passengers. It’s actually the airline. “When you book a plane ticket in today’s digitized world, your airline submits your name, gender, and date of birth to the TSA for clearance,” he says. “Airlines are motivated to ensure you are TSA-approved before you take to the skies [because] there are fines for allowing uncleared passengers onto aircraft.”
Transgender and nonbinary passengers, in particular, may have cause for concern. As of January 23, 2025, the State Department has stopped processing passport applications requesting an “X” gender marker or changes to existing markers, says Harrison. While previously issued “X” passports remain valid, this policy shift could lead to “increased scrutiny and travel difficulties,” he says.
Starting May 7, 2025, US travelers will also need a REAL ID for domestic flights. “For those with an ‘X’ marker,” he adds, “using a REAL ID domestically may reduce SSSS scrutiny if their passport has not been recently used.”
New Jersey-based travel agent and blogger Maddie Winters has visited 100 countries and flies upward of 100,000 miles per year. Despite having Global Entry, she has been SSSS’d more than eight times. “It’s only on flights back to the US and never domestic,” says Winters, who noticed the pattern after traveling through Africa and the Middle East. Her most recent SSSS, however, came on the heels of a trip to Costa Rica. One potential trigger? Booking two weeks out.
“Many travelers unknowingly flag themselves due to inconsistent but innocuous travel behaviors such as booking a last-minute ticket or paying in cash,” says Harrison, who suggests thinking of a travel profile like a credit rating. “If you exhibit behavior that is inconsistent with your profile—say, for example, suddenly adopting a jet-setting pattern—this is a red flag and a potential alert for drug or human trafficking. Consistency is king.”
Travelers might also be marked for booking one-way tickets (common among mileage runners and points devotees), flying to or through countries deemed “high-risk” by the State Department, or if their name bears even a passing resemblance to someone on a Department of Homeland Security watch list.
When Adam Morvitz, CEO and founder of point.me, a real-time search engine for maximizing the value of points and miles, flew from Athens to the US in 2021, he too got stamped. “I believe it was because the award opened just hours earlier and the ticket was flagged,” he says. “That, and it was a one-way international ticket from a different airport [Istanbul] than we flew into.”
How can you get rid of SSSS on a boarding pass?
The first time Los Angeles-based content creator Michelle González encountered an SSSS code was after a 2017 trip to Greece with her husband. While she doesn’t know exactly what triggered it, she wonders whether her destination and layover in Istanbul had anything to do with it. Whatever the cause, the designation appeared on the couple’s tickets during their next three trips.
With that many consecutive knocks, González and her husband applied for redress through the Department of Homeland Security’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, or DHS Trip—the only recourse available to exasperated travelers. DHS responded within weeks, and the issue appeared to be resolved. But then the SSSS codes resurfaced in 2021, prompting González to document the run-ins in a series of viral TikTok videos. She also filed a second redress application. That did the trick: She hasn’t seen the code since.
Clearly, our own trip to Turkey and Georgia was destined for scrutiny. After Turkish Airlines cancelled our reward tickets with no notice, we were forced to reroute via one-way, last-minute bookings across multiple airlines. Fed up with the additional screenings after our return, we applied for redress. The appeals process was tedious but straightforward. It took a few months, but we were eventually issued redress control numbers that we could enter, along with our Known Traveler Number (KTN), every time we booked a flight and we haven’t been flagged since. It’s a tiny extra step for big peace of mind.
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler
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