its amazing what you can get away with if you are blatant about it.
at IAT '89 there was a big birthday party for the red arrows, we asked one of our aircrew to see if he could scrounge us some tickets, but he failed us.
not to be put off, our fairy cpl. put on a posh voice, and walked up to the girl in charge of tickets, and said he needed tickets for the rest of his crew, she didn't bat an eye, and just dished the tickets out.
our crew looked a bit sheepish when we met them there, and a very good night was had by all!