Last Wednesday I flew from Berlin BER to Newark on United. Security goes rather slowly at the airport. Liquids must be out and in a sealed bag, the security attendant checks the bag. Everyone goes through the body scanner and my body image showed eleven question marks, so the pat down begins. They found nothing. Later I went to the gate and the entire process was repeated and the process took about 5 minutes. They found nothing. I would guess 25 percent of the United flight received the SSSS.

Back in July I was on the same flight. The security area by the gate was unmanned and no one received the SSSS. Does the SSSS depend on how much security staff is available at the time? By the way everyone at the airport gets a pat down.

I got ssss on two consecutive trips both ways. I asked and was told it was random luck. I should have bought a lottery ticket. One flight had everyone's carry on luggage opened and hand searched, in groups of 20. I suspect there was some sort of security alert. Another flight I got randomly assigned to precheck security. Again random.

AJPeabody is correct - the dreaded SSSS designation is completely random. It has nothing to do with TSA staffing levels.

I don't believe it's random, at least not always. The only time I ever got that was when I was flying to Israel. A friend who was then a travel agent told me it's more likely to happen if you're traveling to certain places.

I think that is an urban myth. One is just as likely to get the SSSS flying from Reno to Denver as from JFK to TLV. It is random and has to be really.

(Which has nothing to do with the extra security one always faces when flying El Al)

The number of random SSSS designations mare be different for different destinations, also.

I am not convinced it’s actually random. I do randomization for a living so have a bit of experience on the subject. Right before the pandemic, I got the SSSS twice back to back in different countries. On the one flight, I swear everyone got it and it seemed planned. The extra security went so fast as it was exactly like the normal security line just that it wasn’t. I found it odd they had so many personnel ready for all the passengers.

Upon researching this, if one thinks there might be something wrong as they keep getting picked, you can have do a redress inquiry. They wouldn’t have this if it was truly always random.