How can you tell if you’re going to be selected for secondary screening?

I gave a talk to 100 expert travelers last week and asked them by a show of hands how many people had been selected for secondary screening.  About 1/4 of the room raised their hands.  I followed by asking, how many of you holding your hands up knew ahead of time that you were selected.  Everyone lowered their hands.  No one knew ahead of time and it’s possible to know by doing one small exercise the night before you depart for the airport.

The exercise is simple.  Check-in and print out your boarding pass the night before, no more than 24 hours in advance for most airlines.  This alone will tell you a lot.  If you are successful in printing out your boarding pass, you will not be selected for secondary screening by the airlines.  If you cannot print it out, then it’s a high probability that you have been selected for secondary screening. 

The airlines have an override button and can select you for secondary screening depending on the circumstance.  One reason is that there are some passengers who don’t have identification.  These passengers are bound by federal law to go through secondary screening in order to fly and the airline wouldn’t know this until the passengers check in.

Be careful when you decide to get angry at the airline ticket agent, because you just might find yourself in secondary screening.

Remember it’s still a possibility to be randomly selected for secondary screening by TSA’s walk-through metal detector agent.  My advice is not to wear loose clothing.  You don’t want to look like you are carrying a weapon of mass destruction.

Go to: http://www.airportbook.com/bookstore.htm and download all 369 valuable tips!