They used to have a wonderful system in Spain,where, like the system (pre 9/11 I guess ) in the USA, you showed your badge & were accommodated.
It still exists, but the companies have been forced by "Aunty EASA" (or maybe the Dept of Transport equivalent in Spain ) to try to interfere in cockpit jump seat occupation. . . . . feckin crazy, I bet if someone had been sitting on the jump seat of the Spanair Mad Dog in MAD back in 2008 it wouldn't have ended the way it did . . . . always astonished how many errors I spot from the jump seat, no pressure, no role to play . . . easy-peasy.
Anyway, drifting from the thread subject, back to stirring the brown stuff you bunch of happy campers (or did I misspell that last word
)