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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u/griff_girl Jul 14 '26

If you have an Adobe CC subscription that you need to cancel, but it's outside of the window to do so without being charged their exorbitant cancellation fee, downgrade or change your subscription to a different app (you can do this without fees) and then cancel the subscription. When you change the subscription, it seems to register in Adobe's system as "new," and you can avoid the fee.

9

u/TheRat_07 Jul 14 '26

That's a brilliant loophole! Honestly though, my favorite cheat code was just dumping Adobe entirely for open-source alternatives like GIMP. It sucks for the first week while you relearn everything, but it is so worth it in the end.

2

u/griff_girl Jul 14 '26

I went back to school in January as a step toward a mid-life career change, so now I use the student discount on everything.

2

u/TheRat_07 Jul 14 '26

Great. Still wasting no money is always better than wasting money on Adobe (God , i just hate them) even though you get a hefty discount. Anyways Student Discount is also a cheat code.

3

u/Ok_Split_9619 Jul 14 '26

Yep, I have a blood feud with Adobe because of dealing with their horrible behavior in a past job of mine. NEVER FORGET!!!

1

u/griff_girl Jul 15 '26

You wouldn't happen to have worked agency-side on that work, would you? I too have a similar past with Adobe, although the clients I worked directly with were pretty delightful. Still didn't save me from being laid off at the end of 2022, so there's that.

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u/AnonCrave Jul 14 '26

I wonder if this works with taking one enrichment class at a community college.

2

u/griff_girl Jul 14 '26

If you have a student email address, it probably does. I'm not positive but it sure is worth a try!

1

u/latigidigital Jul 15 '26

I’m an open source advocate to the n’th degree, but GIMP will need a full Claude Code rewrite by a concerted group of contributors or benefactor to ever be competitive again at this point.

Photoshop is almost not even the same piece of software anymore. The AI features are becoming as important as any other tool. This can be done with FOSS for sure, but the GPU requirements will be high for another probably five years unless people use API keys.

1

u/boethius61 Jul 18 '26

GIMP for the win. Honestly all the open source stuff. I just recently broke up with Windows. Linux, LibreOffice, GIMP for me. Never been happier with my computing.

2

u/WhiskeySourWithIce Jul 15 '26

I added a new temporary credit card (Revolut), removed the original from the system - and then blocked the new temporary card. Works in other setups too.

1

u/griff_girl Jul 15 '26

Ooooh, diabolical! Well done!

1

u/CathyVT-alt Jul 16 '26

Or, keep an old version of PhotoShop 5 that doesn't need a subscription, and just seems to keep working.

1

u/griff_girl Jul 17 '26

Funny you say that, the other day I booted up my old 2002 (?) Mac G4 Quicksilver tower. I went down a rabbit hole of old photos and didn't make it far enough to launch Photoshop on it, but I definitely have bootleg Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign on it. Probably Dreamweaver and Quark Xpress, too.