To reach a human, press …

These are two of the coolest Web sites we’ve seen in a while! They offer “cheat sheets” of prompts to help you circumvent a potentially maddening or time-consuming phone tree and speak to an actual human.

Dial A Human and GetHuman share “secret” phone numbers and advice to help you reach customer service folks at hundreds of companies. Here’s a sample:

• Alaska Airlines (800-252-7522. Press #)
• Google (650-623-4000. Press 0)
• Qwest (800 244 1111. Press 1; say "Operator" at all subsequent prompts)

Thanks, Consumerist – via Consumer Smarts!

Talk about it: Have you tried any of these?