I was told by a gate agent that you get the the SSSS depending on your form of payment (like cash when you could pay in cash) or if you book your ticket to close to the departure date. But most likely random.
I booked my flight 320 days before departure and paid with my JetBlue credit card. I’m also TSA precheck (not that that applies in SXM, but JetBlue still has it on my profile). It’s 100% random. In the US if you get tagged with the SSSS they do your secondary screening at the checkpoint. Seems quite silly to do it the way they do at SXM at the gate. 🤷♂️
