Apparently America doesn't use these because this isn't a bug, it is a feature that was left out.
They are called USSD's.
In some cases you can chain requests. So use another phone and type *blah#. Then look what number the option you want is (lets say 3). Then dial *blah*3# and so on.
I used to be able to check my airtime on MTN with: *162*pass*1*2# but they seemed to have changed that a little while ago. So I call 258 now for the voice guided menu.