Thread: flight crews fly free

Originally Posted by frapos

Interesting how these procedures vary. Here in Europe, and elsewhere I believe other than the USA, who gets a jump seat is at the captain's discretion. And a life saver for many a non-rev on full flights. A request is made to the captain if all the standbys cannot be accommodated on standard passenger seats. Some captains prefer only flight crew, or those with experience flying jump, others are quite flexible. I've flown jump both cabin and cockpit on a couple occasions. Worst was a 9 hour transatlantic flight. Not a comfortable experience but the crew were great to me, in spite of the DYKWIA gold card passenger seated opposite complainng that I was taking up his precious leg space. One exception is for flights to and from the USA and the UK where only uniformed certified plots are allowed to fly in the cockpit, at least within their airpace

I believe it used to be a lot of the Captain's discretion for anyone riding in the cockpit but thanks to 9/11, the game changed a little, no, a lot more. Even wives and girl friends would fly in cockpit.