Your semi-interesting travel observation of the day

For those of you who will be travelling this holiday season, here’s a useful, spontaneous discovery I made yesterday. This is based on my personal experience with an automated voice recognition software program on the customer service line of a major airline: If, at any point, you say “f*** you” into the phone, you will ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

For those of you who will be travelling this holiday season, here's a useful, spontaneous discovery I made yesterday. This is based on my personal experience with an automated voice recognition software program on the customer service line of a major airline: If, at any point, you say "f*** you" into the phone, you will be automatically and politely transferred to a human operator.Remember, you have to pronounce the asterisks correctly. I'm sure my razor-sharp readers were already cognizant of this fact -- but if not, go forth and find out if it works on other airlines. UPDATE: This site is also useful for figuring out how to talk to a human (hat tip: loyal reader A.A.)

For those of you who will be travelling this holiday season, here’s a useful, spontaneous discovery I made yesterday. This is based on my personal experience with an automated voice recognition software program on the customer service line of a major airline:

If, at any point, you say “f*** you” into the phone, you will be automatically and politely transferred to a human operator.

Remember, you have to pronounce the asterisks correctly. I’m sure my razor-sharp readers were already cognizant of this fact — but if not, go forth and find out if it works on other airlines. UPDATE: This site is also useful for figuring out how to talk to a human (hat tip: loyal reader A.A.)

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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