Well, the airlines say it is a coincidence. But my husband and I have flown many times since 9/11 and we beat your 85%. We are singled out 100% of each time we have flown.
Finally, we were told that our biggest “problem” was that we had purchased one-way tickets when we went to Kansas City, MO when my mother was in the hospital. We were not sure when we’d be returning (because of the gravity of her illness) so we figured we’d just buy the ticket back to Chicago when we made sure mom was okay.
Mom was not okay and died eight weeks later but not before we had made a number of trips back and forth — round trip purchases for weekend visits to hospital. We learned to recognize those bold face “Ss” down in the right hand corner and sure enough, we got the special treatment.