You never know when someone else’s bad behavior is about to work in your favor.

Imagine patiently waiting your turn to check into a hotel, when the couple in front of you begins to have a meltdown and treats hotel staff like garbage right in front of you. Would you stand up to the people? Or would you just try to make the clerk feel better when it was your turn?

In the following story, one man finds himself in this situation, and taking the high road gets him a fancy suite. Here’s what happened.

Entitled Couple’s Meltdown = My Luxury Upgrade

Back in 2008, my partner and I took a cruise through South America. Picture this: three days in Rio during Carnival, a week of debauchery on the high seas, and wrapping up in fabulous Buenos Aires.

Pure bliss. Well, mostly.

Back then, the concept of a boatload of docking in port was breaking news in some places. Everyone was friendly, but I still felt like one misstep by any of us would be a permanent black mark on everyone everywhere. The stakes were high!

Now, my partner and I weren’t exactly rolling in it—inside cabin poor—but we splurged on a few nights at a “nice” hotel after the cruise.

The clerk tried to reason with them.

Turns out, so did half the queens on that ship.

By 10 a.m., there was a line snaking out the lobby doors, all of us hungover and politely waiting our turn to drop bags and wander off until check-in.

Enter them. A couple behind us decided they were simply too important to wait. One of them had some VIP ultra-diamond-titanium-whatever status with the hotel, which supposedly came with early check-in.

The clerk, who had the patience of a saint, explained that early check-in was based on availability—and at 10 a.m., there wasn’t any.

He complimented the clerk.

But these two? Oh no. They lost their entitled minds.

Voices were raised. The clerk’s intelligence was questioned. Her English, which was impeccable but slightly accented (we were in Buenos Aires!), was mocked. It was full bully energy—but double-barrel edition. Security eventually stepped in.

When it was finally our turn, I felt like I needed to make amends for the sins of our people.

I apologized to the clerk, told her no one should be spoken to like that, and casually mentioned how much we appreciated her professionalism.

Being polite got them rewarded.

We had a lovely little chat about travel and the cruise while she processed what I assumed was a placeholder for when check-in time rolled around. Except it wasn’t.

With a smile, she handed us two keys. For a suite. A massive suite with a stunning view and rooftop pool access right down the hall.

“Enjoy your stay,” she said with a wink.

And enjoy we did. So, to the entitled queens who screamed their way into oblivion: gracias, darlings. That view was everything.

Wow! That was so lucky for them.

Let’s see if anything like this has ever happened to Reddit readers.

More than likely, they do.

That must be a great feeling.

This person wants him to write a book.

So true!

Clerks deal with this behavior a lot.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.