The power of the hi-viz is amazing.
I am going to provide you all with a life hack here.
If you need to park in a Supermarket car park for longer than the allotted time. Put a hi-viz on or just walk to the customer service desk with confidence. Ask them for the Contractors book and sign in, then ask is you need to register you vehicles Reg. they will do it for you. Walk round the shop for a minute and then disappear off to what ever you want to do.
I don’t think I would have the nerve, but it does remind me of an incident years ago. I was at a meeting with a senior manager in Dundee and when we were about to go back to Glasgow he felt unwell and asked if I would drive us back in his company car, which I would be insured to drive.
The car was a BMW 5 series and I was very careful to keep to the speed limit on the way back. After a while, I noticed that there was a huge queue of cars that were very slowly edging past us overtaking. I actually slowed down a bit and noticed that the queue slowed down as well.
The thing is that these were the kind of rep mobiles that were lucky if they had seen the right side of 90mph since they left the dealership. It then dawned on me: two blokes wearing suits in a top end German saloon driving very carefully must have looked like a dead cert unmarked police car.
All you need is a smile and to ask for the contractors book. If they ask what you were doing just say you were surveying for future fridge works.
My GF got a parking ticket at one of the local supermarkets, so I put on my boots and hi-viz, walked in and said that I was onsite the other week carrying out a survey and despite giving my Reg. i received a ticket. They asked for the PCN number and I walked out with the parking ticket cancelled.
Honestly, the power of the Hi-Viz is crazy, you could walk round the whole back of house of a supermarket unchallenged.
Yes, a smile…and a “pre-emptive” compliment do work wonders. Cost nothing, get something and make someone at the other end happy at the same time.
I didn’t do what you did but something similiar, ie to get for free what I ordinarily have to pay for.
I airtravel regionally (up to 5hrs) for leisure very often about 10 times a year.
Since it’s all on my own coin, it’s mainly via LCCs (9 trips out of 10), only forking out for the basic fares, sans all the bells and whistles.
I snack at the airport before flight, so do not require any F&B service onboard. No check-in baggage as all I need for up to an average of a week away is a backpack weighing around 5kg. At times, it do exceed the free allowance limit of 7 to 10 kg, depending on the airline. That’s only on my homebound flight when I overbought stuff, but I never ever have to pay for the excess due to the aforesaid smile and “pre-emptive” compliment.
The other freebie I usually succeed in getting is an aisle seat which ordinarily have to be prebooked with a fee since basic fares mean seats are pre-assigned (the dreaded middle seat).
Ah, one more is when queues are long, I would amble with a put-on limp and with a smile, requesting to jump the line citing inablity to stand for long.
Transfer windows.
Brings out the worst in people.
Here’s £50.
Well thanks, but I want £100.
People who ask stupid questions 
One of my grumps is people feigning a limp in order to jump queues 
From a works perspective I have to sit on the fence. It is equally as frustrating when someone asks a stupid question as to when someone doesn’t ask a question and does something stupid.
Sadly, the conclusion is that “common sense” is not actually that common 
.
Common sense is one of these spurious terms that often just means not having to think, but one area that really winds me up is TV remote controls.
On a modern TV remote, there are usually about 10 buttons that are frequently used. Typically there are a gazillion others that do god-knows-what or nothing at all, but you use the basic 10, and they are usually arranged in a manner that you can use by touch alone… until they aren’t.
I recently used a hotel TV in which the “home” button took me to a sign on for Rakuten TV. I then couldn’t get out of it, because the “back” and “exit” keys were moved and/or didn’t work. I ended up having to unplug the telly to get it to restart and then gingerly found the Tele-5 channel so I could watch a shonky old Sci-fi movie.
And one of mine is people putting on hi-vis to get small advantages.
Kidding. 
Touché
*Just to clarify - I feel at times on this forum I need to - I was also joking. Infact you could say I was pulling your ‘Limpy Leg’
First world problems hey
I must admit that I do get frustrated with TV remotes. However, I think Hotel remotes are programmed in a manner to annoy rather than assist.
Whatever, so long as I won’t be lynched. 
My experience on this site is that the Lynch is often the one who gets Lynched
If they are modern ones you can reprogramme them. when I’m away in apts or hotels I do it if I’m bored.
What’s so hard to understand about the idea of a ‘quiet carriage’?
Absolutely nothing but they don’t give a fcuk
Why do some people spend so long standing in front of ATMs pressing so many buttons. Are they trying to get a tune out of it?
By random lynch mobs or, TAN forbid, its lynchpins?
that.
and people at the checkout who are given the bill, then reach in thier wallet /purse for the card.
not that it takes too long, but, still…its not a suprise that you need to pay.