We got back from New Zealand on Wednesday last week, and we’re all still getting back into the groove of things. We had a wonderful time in both Auckland and Hahei, but we did run into some hiccups on the way home.
For starters, I couldn’t get my boarding pass.
I was checking in for our flight 24 hours in advance via the American Airlines app, as I typically try to check in as soon as possible. I was able to check in for myself, my husband, and my son, but only their boarding passes generated; mine would not. I checked on the website as well, and I ran into the same issue. Weird, but okay. Since we were checked in and had our seats (all together, thankfully), I figured we could print our boarding passes at the airport.
After an easy SkyDrive bus ride to AKL, we got to the American Airlines kiosk to print paper copies of our boarding passes. While going through the process, it gave us the opportunity to confirm our known traveler numbers for Global Entry. Tyler’s number was listed, but despite inputting it twice, mine wouldn’t come through. This was annoying, but I wasn’t overly concerned about it – we’d have to go through security regardless – until my boarding pass finally printed. In big letters, my boarding pass had SSSS.
You might be asking yourself, what is SSSS? I thought the same thing when I saw it printed out, and quickly Googled “SSSS boarding pass” to see what came up. This article was very helpful, alerting me that the SSSS on my boarding pass meant I had been chosen for “Secondary Security Screening Selection,” which overrides any TSA Pre-Check and Global Entry benefits. It can also take quite a bit of extra time, so I bid my adieu as my husband and son stayed with my father-in-law (he was checking his bag), and I headed over to security.
Ultimately, the traditional security process was super easy, and I thought that I’d breezed right through the “secondary screening.” That is, until we got closer to our gate. When we were about two gates away, there were staff checking passports, and I was then redirected for my additional screening. I was assured it would be fairly quick, which was nice to hear!
I went into a small room that had one other traveler and two security staff members. The woman working with me asked me to remove my laptop from my backpack, as well as take off my shoes. She then swabbed my socks, pockets, hands, computer, and bag to check for explosives. She also felt the soles of my sneakers – I honestly couldn’t tell you what this was for, but I passed the inspection. She stamped my boarding pass, and I was given the all clear to go to my gate and board with the family.
It was not nearly as long of a process as I had feared it could be, but YMMV depending on the process in place at your airport. If you find the quadruple S on your boarding pass in the future, good luck to you!