TW: This is a vintage 2003 piece on the art of using $20 bill to get one's way in the world. I only clipped a couple of bits, the whole piece is pretty good though.
From Esquire via the Big Picture blog:
"...On the plane, I approached the woman in seat 1A and held out a twenty. She asked if I was serious. I said yes. She took it and ran to 9B like her pants were on fire.
On the next leg--Cleveland to New York--I skipped the ticket counter altogether, walked straight into first class, and announced that I'd give anyone twenty dollars for his seat. There was some laughter, some nervous ass shifting, and just when I figured no one would bite, a big guy with a beltful of pagers and cell phones took the deal. The flight attendant jumped me when I sat down, asked if money had changed hands. The guy next to me nodded, and she jabbed me with her finger. "I could have you removed from the plane for that," she said, but the flight was crowded and soon she moved on. The guy sitting next to me said he'd never seen that trick before, and he was going to try it next time he didn't get an upgrade. "The FAA would shit their pants if everyone could do that," he said. "You could auction first class away if you had enough time...
...I always grease Bobby H., the bellman at my hotel, and on my first night, within minutes of the pass, he suggested that I might request a room upgrade. He even gave me a room number to ask for. Another twenty at the desk and I was out of two queens, snug in my one king. The next day, we ran the same drill, and wham, I was in the minisuite. The twenty after that, I was in a full suite with a view of Times Square. We used a different desk guy each day. When you're passing twenties, Bobby H. told me, you have to spread the wealth. "It's a one-time trick," he said. "You don't want anyone to catch on." Somehow he managed to take a twenty each time, having caught on fully some time ago."
http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0303-MAR_20DOLLARS
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