Yes, I too was very lucky to have worked pre 9/11 for various UK airlines where Jump Seat rides were always offered by most Captains and Crews.
Had some memorable flight deck trips such as those landing on RWY 23 at LHR, and an evening approach to LAX on Xmas Eve flying in over all of the houses adorned with Xmas lights, with an amazing blazing sunset setting over the Pacific Ocean.
Another notable one was on a Britannia 767 from Ibiza to LGW when the Skipper showed us (there were 2 jump seat staff riders) that the thing could basically fly itself handsfree from after Rotate to the Touchdown.
Sitting in the huge 'front room' sized cockpits of the Tristar or DC-10 was always a treat, and the nose high landing attitude of the Tristar was something to behold on the Approaches and Final.
At British Midland LHR we always ran with a full load on the busy DC-9 Teesside route at the morning and evening peaks which were invariably overbooked by a few.
On occasions everyone decided to show up, or it may have been days when either BA, or British Rail were on strike so we had folk clamouring to get on.
The DC-9 sat 90 pax and we had a flight deck, and also a rear cabin jump seat.
All of us were always 'can do' and the Skippers and CC #1's were keen to get as many on as possible.
The Skippers invariably liked blondes on the Flight Deck LOL...
So we chose a couple of revenue passengers who were now on standby to try to get on, and asked them if they were OK to fly on the Jumpseat.
The answers were always yes, as they wanted to get to their meeting, or to go home, or to have the privilege of a flight deck seat.
We offered those pax their ticket coupon back so they could use it again or get a refund but that was always declined.
We catered the overbooked flights for 92, so they still got their breakfast or dinner.
My last flight deck ride was on an Astraeus 757 from JMK Mykonos to LGW in early Sept 2001, just a few days before 9/11.
This was tinged with some sadness when we later realised that quite a few of the American lads that were in our hotel on that holiday, flew home to go back to work at their jobs in the WTC in NYC.