When you’re prepared to fly and have your boarding pass in hand, you’ll see there’s a bunch of gobbledeegook that’s on it. They’re all code that gate agents and flight attendants understand. But in the past we’ve explained what a lot of those various numbers and letters mean (we’ve also written a post about what to do if your TSA PreCheck status isn’t on your boarding pass, just in case).
There’s one code that most flyers don’t want to see/have on their boarding pass – the “dreaded” SSSS – here’s why.
Many people have written about why having SSSS on your boarding pass is so awful and what can happen if you’re “lucky” enough to have it on your. As one blogger wrote:
…may include enhanced pat-downs and their carry-on luggage may also be inspected by hand. If they have film or other items that can’t be X-rayed, the TSA agent may perform a test for possible explosive materials (here’s now to make sure you don’t get a false positive for those!). The screener may also use a hand-held metal detector to search the passenger for metal objects.
You may also have to answer questions about your travel, or wait around why the agents do heightened security checks on your passport or identity.
So yeah, having SSSS on your passport is a pain, but assuming you haven’t done anything wrong, it just wastes a few minutes of your time while they do their thing (that being said, it’s another reason to make sure you get to the airport early enough to ensurer you have ample time for delays such as these). There’s a code you may see on your boarding pass that could be much, much worse.
GTE.
PC: GoogleDocs / Author unknown
You’ll see it where your seat assignment should be, and that’s the problem…if you see GTE on your boarding pass, you don’t have a seat assignment for your plane. In fact, you might not even have a seat. GTE stands for “gate” and it could mean anything from, “your flight is overbooked and you may not get on that plane,” to “Nah, don’t worry; you’ll get on the plane. You just don’t have a seat assignment yet.”
OK, the latter one isn’t so bad. But that first one? Ewwwwwww.
By the way, not all airlines use the code GTE. Some use SEE AGENT or some other words that, even if you don’t know what the issue is, at least you know what you need to do. GTE, although yeah, similar to G-A-T-E, is still just…gobbledeegook.
Years ago, there was a big brough-ha-ha that Air Canada was purposely overselling their flights (which, hello, they all do), but would then be less than transparent with customers who were more likely to be denied boarding because a flight had been oversold. Instead, they’d see you had GTE on your boarding pass and not mention anything. They’d just leave it for the gate agents to deal with (wasn’t that sweet of them?)
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
