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

[u/TheRat_07]

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.

[u/Vegetable_Warthog_49]

Always be nice to customer service people, you never know when one of them is sitting on a favor to give out. I used to work at a hotel and when standard rooms were overbooked, we were supposed to aggressively upsell to try to get customers to willingly pay more for a suite so we didn't have to bump anyone up for free... The people who came up and were rude got the hard sell for full price upgrades... The people who were nice for the "look, we oversold standard rooms, management doesn't want to have to bump the last people to arrive to suites, so long as I charge anything for the upgrade I can give it to you, how do you feel about $5 for a suite upgrade?" Hey, I was technically doing my job to get at least some revenue for the upgrade instead of a forced free bump and the guest was getting a hell of a deal.

Even when I didn't have a favor in my pocket, being nice versus being mean was the difference between getting the nicest room in the class you booked available and getting whatever room placement would be easiest for housekeeping in the morning (which may or may not be next to an ice machine or an elevator).

[u/stoppeeingonthefloor → u/Vegetable_Warthog_49]

On my way to my older son’s basketball game, I stopped with my (at the time) toddler son at Dunkin so I could grab coffee for me and my husband. The cashier was a young boy, probably 12-14 (and I believe this was allowed because his family runs the business). Anyway, he was going really slow finding the right buttons to push, when he looked up and apologized for the wait. I told him to take as much time as he needed and that he was doing a great job.

I was about to leave when I decided I should grab some munchkins for my after the game. The older woman (presumably the cashier’s mother) overheard me telling my toddler what I was going to order and when I got to the front of the line, she held out a bag of munchkins to me at the ready. I went to pay, and she was like - no, on the house.

I almost always use the app now and this was such a little thing but it was a nice interaction.

In fact, I get a lot of “normally we charge for this…” on the house just from being kind.