I am very very curious re the forbes article, and i'm a little tempted to give it a go, just for the fun of it.

I have a comp upgrade on a transpac flight in a couple of weeks, but my partner will be flying in Y. I'm curious whether the $50 note in the ticket wallet at the biz checkin may just yield a biz class for my partner.

If anyone does try any of these, i am definitely curious to know the result and what the reaction of the agent was! - particularly the 'i know the CEO one...'