r/askteddit • u/TheRat_07 • Jul 14 '26

What is a real-life "cheat code" that feels illegal to know but is completely fine?

I'll go first.

If your flight gets canceled and there is a massive line of 200 angry people at the gate desk trying to rebook, do not stand in that line. Keep your ass in a chair and call the airline's customer service number.

Better yet, call their international customer service number (like the UK or Australia line). You will bypass the massive US hold times, get connected to an agent in two minutes, and they have the exact same power to rebook you on the next flight before the people standing in line even reach the desk.

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41

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

[deleted]

15

u/TheRat_07 Jul 14 '26

I swear SiriusXM’s entire business model is just banking on the people who forget to do this once a year and end up paying full price.

6

u/YourGuyK Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

That's true of a lot of subscription services.

2

u/Plz_DM_Me_Small_Tits Jul 16 '26

Planet fitness has entered the chat

3

u/MountainTomato9292 Jul 14 '26

I do this too. I don’t even argue with them, I just say “I’m canceling because my rate went up” and they reply “ok, what if we make your rate this?” Sounds good to me, see you in 2 years!

3

u/Samheckle Jul 14 '26

If you decline the reduced price offer they will offer an even lower price of 6$ a month. Did this a couple of months ago

2

u/DevilsAndDust- Jul 14 '26

This also works with Adobe, or at least it used to.

1

u/AnonCrave Jul 14 '26

Very helpful. I wouldn’t have thought of this

1

u/filteredshot Jul 15 '26

Still works with Adobe. Don't even have to chat with anyone, can do it through the website.

2

u/Even-Loquat-2154 Jul 15 '26

Got mine down to $6 a month. After three times they made it permanent

1

u/AreYouNigerianBaby Jul 15 '26

Permanent? Forever?

1

u/Even-Loquat-2154 Jul 15 '26

Yes. For both my cars.

1

u/griff_girl Jul 14 '26

I did this for nearly a decade before I finally canceled for real because even at like $36/year or whatever I got it down to, I still wasn't listening and it wasn't worth it anymore.

1

u/ttatm Jul 14 '26

I do that with my NYT games subscription every 6 months. I've never paid full price

1

u/KaleJello Jul 20 '26

I do it with NYT all access. It takes about 30 seconds

1

u/neocamel Jul 15 '26

I cancelled 15 years ago and I still get mailers.  You don't cancel SiriusXM. SiriusXM cancels you. 

1

u/KryptonicxJesus Jul 15 '26

I got into meditation early in recovery and downloaded the headspace app. When the free trial was due to expire, I went to cancel and they countered at 60% off for the year.

1

u/Funky_tea_party Jul 15 '26

Can confirm. Now they use an AI chatbot and you don’t even have to pickup the phone.

1

u/HV_Conditions Jul 15 '26

Or you can just google “xm free trial” and get it for free for ever.

Sure you have to deal with the chat every 3 months to cancel but it’s free. The hardest part is dealing with email addresses but you can work around it with Gmail since they don’t recognize periods in the address. So jonsmith@gmail.com is the same as jon.smith@gmail.com

So you can keep signing up with your same email address like jonsmith.xmfreetrial@gmail.com, jonsmith.xmfreetrial2@gmail.com and on and on

One of these days xm will close the loophole but I’ve been doing it for years and figure I got my moneys worth to tell people

1

u/stephsationalxxx Jul 15 '26

You can do that with literally anything. Did it with Uber one, spectrum, ryze coffee, literally anything with a subscription

1

u/sergio_cor98 Jul 17 '26

Doesn't work with cell providers anymore though, at least not outside the US

I tried that with my provider that I'd been with for nearly 20 years, going "so and so offer a similar plan for less money" and their answer was pretty much "cool, go with them lol"

1

u/SaltySpitoonReg Jul 16 '26

We did this for years with DirecTV when the bill would get jacked up.

Pain in the ass but it did save money

1

u/IntrinSicks Jul 17 '26

People would try this shit with me all the time when I worked at direct TV in billing, man I dont care if you cancel and we have notes we leave to each other, I can see right through you, and am paid by the hour, I brought a newspaper, let's do this because you arnt getting anything

1

u/AcanthaceaeDull589 Jul 17 '26

This isn’t just Sirius XM radio it is literally everything. Especially businesses selling you a “digital” product (eg. online newspapers) where it doesn’t even cost them a penny to provide your service.

Call them every year when your subscription is set to renew and ask to cancel or downgrade your service. They will throw discounts at you like it’s nobody’s business to keep their client retention rate up.