The business has sure changed with respect to cockpit visits, was not unown on some airlines for the cockpit crew to scan the manifest and invite certain pax to make a visit, and you didn't necessarily have to be a noted personality.
Better not mention that ‘rumour’ of letting the captain’s private pilot buddy hand fly the jet in cruise for a bit. It is ok if it is a freighter isn’t it
Grew up knowing the crew members of a private operation, they used to visit for dinner when in town and to give me a ride when possible. In the cruise in a F-27 this seventeen year old was given the left seat and allowed to make a couple of turns. Crew were all captains, the captain captain on this flight, Reg Bagwell, cut his teeth flying airlines pre WWII, notably had a gear up landing in the spinafex due engine failure in a Lockheed 10, crew and pax spent a month in the bush while the aircraft was repaired, an airstrip built and aircraft flown out. Book "Escape From the Rising Sun" by Allen Metherell gives details. The particular aircraft now sits in the US Navy Pensacola Museum dressed up in Navy garb.
And crews these days reckon they have it hard.
