I was lucky to work for airlines that were quite reasonable even after 9/11. Yes, we had to advise the fleet office and get an OK from the other colleague, but we could still take family, which enabled me to show my parents and siblings what a normal four sector day means. Sadly, around 2015 things got more complicated and difficult, the last freedom we had was taking ATCOs and pilots (badge was required from either group) from other airlines on the jump seat and eventually that was taken away as well. As far as i know there are still some airlines that allow crew from other carriers on standby tickets, but as i don’t have standby travel anymore (the perks of flying low cost) i can’t say from first hand experience if that is true.

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Certainly when flying back from Rhodes with EXS a few weeks back and all being boarded and awaiting ATC clearance and the subsequent delays that were involved - the captain was quite happy for
families and curious folk on board to come up
to the deck for a photo or two on the deck.

It was a nice touch, great customer service and sadly as much I didn’t pluck up the courage to go
and have a looky look myself due to not having a little person in tow - I really wanted to!

Obviously once clearance was getting close and prior to the doors being closed and the bridge being pulled everything was locked up and we were on our way….opening the cockpit door for anything post 9/11 or even Eurowings I expect is simply a no no - I expect sadly.

M.

Hello Coachcpt and welcome to the Cabin of PPRuNe. Yes, locked doors and, when FC or CC have to go through the door, they have to have another crew on 'look out'.

It's a shame that cockpit visits are not allowed. I cannot recall any hijacking beginning with a polite request to CC to go up front.
Although perhaps the following wasn't a great idea. My oldest brother - maybe 20 at the time - during a VC-10 cockpit visit was invited to sit in one of the front seats (presumably on the right), put his hands on the yoke, and then they disengaged the auto-pilot. I remember him saying that it went into a *very* gentle bank at which the captain (or FO) swiftly resumed control.
Madness perhaps.
Before inevitable comparisons with Aeroflot 593: the crew *knew* that the autopilot was disengaged. And were monitoring very closely. And (somehow?) knew that my brother was doing his very best to keep it level. He'd already set his sights on an aviation career by then.
Years later, brother ended up sitting LHS on Big Airways 777s.

Ah the good old days before 9/11...

Had a few jump seat rides on inbound BAH Chinooks from North Sea oil platforms to Aberdeen, best one was a night flight, Aberdeen on the nose and Peterhead off to the right, otherwise inky darkness all around. PIC asked me where I was travelling onwards to, when I told him Manchester he said it'd be a bit tight making the connection so he radioed BA traffic at Aberdeen and asked them to lay on a crew bus on the apron to transfer me ASAP to fixed wing terminal! So we taxi in at Aberdeen, crew bus waiting alongside, the cabin attendant lets me off rotors turning and I get whisked around to fixed wing....alas when I ran up to the check-in desk the aircraft for MAN had just pushed back, but boy did those guys try their best to get me on that flight.

Another time I scrounged a ride in the jump seat on a BA night flight from LPL to Belfast City, can't remember the aircraft type, it was a small twin turboprop I think. Anyway, the PIC says I shouldn't really be on the flight deck for landing, but he wasn't going to tell anyone if I didn't, so I'm there all the way in to engine shutdown. At one point on approach we saw an airport vehicle wander onto the runway and the pilot said he hoped we wouldn't have to go around...I'd have been quite happy if we had!

Offshore was often fun, taking a Bell 212 across from one platform to another to pick up some gear, me the only passenger there and back. Or up on the helideck with the pilot having a look at his brand new Dauphin parked up there while he stopped for lunch. Taking off in an S-61 from one of the Brent platforms in 55 knots gusting to 70, I swear we went straight up about 200 feet when we lifted off the deck!

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.

Only two FD visits for me... both as an excited child.
First one was a Boeing 707, must have been 1977, possibly Britsh Airtours(?) travelling to Tenerife on our first family foreign holiday. The captain was lovely, and it turned out he lived in my home town. I was thrilled to bits with the FD visit, and things only got better afterwards as we had turbulence, which I thought was fantastic. Pretty sure this was what got me interested in aerobatics in later life.
Second FD visit was on the Western Belle, Laker Airways Skytrain, DC 10. Can't remember the year - must have been pre-1982 when Laker ceased trading - but again, one happy kid.
Such a shame these experiences are no longer available. They really can sow the seeds for a lifetime interest or career.

I rue the day I was unable to take advantage of John Deakin’s offer of a jump seat flight on JAL to São Paulo.

Great stories, thanks folks. New ones always welcome. Thanks to redsnail for those lovely pictures.

A couple of coincidences. My father was a concert pianist. On his way home from Australia sometime in the 60s he stopped in Singapore. He decided to go for a drink at Raffles. As he walked in a neighbour walked out. They went in for a drink. "Where are you going next?" asked the neighbour. Delhi answered father. When? Tomorrow. Which airline? BOAC. That's my flight. Dad had just settled in his seat next day when cabin crew came and said "Captain Smiths' compliments would you like to join him in the cockpit". and so my father had a ride out of Singapore and into Delhi. (and, yes, the neighbour really was called Captain Smith!)

Then, sometime in the 90s I met a BA FO on a cub scout weekend. A month later I boarded a flight to Belfast and there he was again. On finals he turned and said "we're now going to demonstrate a short landing in a 737". My impression was that we only just missed the grass and then max braking, full reverse thrust etc. Once we got to the terminal and shut down I couldn't help asking why. The response was along the lines : we're ten minutes late, there are 3 exits from the runway, one at each end and one halfway. By taking the half way exit we made up 5 of those ten minutes.

That's a lovely story - no aircraft involved but I met my wife in May and we got married in September the same year - 32 years ago. Sometimes you just know...!

Lovely stories. Thank you.

Early 90s, a friend and I had a visit on a BA DC-10 flight to DFW, as we were both avionic engineers and of course, interested what was up front.

Chatting to the crew, they asked what were were going to do in Texas. We told them that actually, we were going to learn to fly and get our PPLs. That prompted further discussions and they even pulled maps out to find the actual airfield we were going to use (Bourland Field, just outside Fort Worth).

They really did take an interest, gave us lots of encouragement and was a great start to our trip.

(If I have told this story earlier in the thread, I apologise)

Mention of the DC-10 reminds of a trip in Dec 88. I had a short break in The Gambia and the package included the LGW-BJL sectors. I had chosen that week as it meant I was flying back on Christmas Day, I knew the flight would be empty and traffic easy when home.

The DC10-30 was still in BCal colours and had been outbound night, back day. As we taxied out about 10:00, the Captain said that we should not be surprised by any pitch of the aircraft immediately after take off ... turned out I learnt from the CC, that the inbound crew had arranged to go directly to the beach. We did a a bit of a swoop so that the crews could wave at each other!!

Food was great, I had three Y seats to myself and everyone was in a great mood. I visited the front whilst over the Sahara and was able to tell them about my father flying over the desert in a Baufighter in 1942. Hazardous navigation in those days! A fabulous trip, about six hours, I think.

Back in the "Good Old Days", pre 2001, I had a few visits to the flight deck, but the best one was in 1984, flying back from Naples on a British Airtours Tristar...the co pilot showed me the instruments, and I remarked what Mach number is that? and he looked at me sideways and said "what do you do?" "Air Traffic in the RAF"..says I..He showed me the chart, explaining where we were and what arrival into Gatwick..at this point the Captain, who had been silently doing the crossword, turned around and pushed down the little folding jump seat, and got me a head set..I stayed all the way into Gatwick, only leaving when we got to the gate...Such a treat!
A very belated thanks, guys!

Back in the 80s, I worked in Northern Manitoba during the summers.
Air Manitoba, and to a lesser extent, Perimeter, used to fly YWG to YGO and later, as charters, YWG to our strip at the East end of God’s lake. I scrounged quite a few rides on the flight deck in Daks, on Air Manitoba’s C46 and in metros.
My best one ever, though, was on an Air France CDG-ORD flight. I talked my way into the jumpseat about 45 minutes after takeoff, and stayed there for the entire rest of the flight, including the landing, at ORD.