While it’s not uncommon to see flights overbooked, here’s an unconventional way of handling that… and I’m kind of jealous of the “lucky” passengers (thanks to View from the Wing for flagging this).
Transavia seats mother & daughter in cockpit on overbooked flight
This incident happened on February 21, 2026, and involves Transavia flight HV6134 from Hurghada, Egypt (HRG), to Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS). For those not familiar, Transavia is the low cost carrier of Air France-KLM. At 2,292 miles, and with a block time of 5hr45min, this is one of Transavia’s longer routes.
At the gate prior to departure, one of the pilots was reportedly making an announcement asking for two volunteers to sit in the cockpit for the flight, due to an overbooking. Eventually, a woman and a girl who was maybe 10 years old, volunteered, and ended up spending the flight sitting in the cockpit jump seats.
This situation all came to light when a Reddit user who was on the flight shared his experience, writing the following:
As a long-time KLM Platinum member, I just witnessed a breach on a Transavia flight (HV6134 on 21/02) that feels like we’ve time-traveled back to 1995.
The Situation: The flight was overbooked. Instead of following EU261 protocols and bumping passengers, the Captain decided to solve the issue by putting two unauthorized civilians (an adult woman and a ~10-year-old girl) in the cockpit jumpseats.These passengers remained on the flight deck for the entire 5-hour duration, including critical phases (takeoff and landing at Schiphol). I was seated in 2C and captured metadata-verified video of the boarding and arrival phases.
Why I’m posting here: We all know the post-9/11 rules. The flight deck is a Security Restricted Area. Trading 20 years of security architecture just to avoid a bumped-passenger payout is a massive “Normalization of Deviance.” I have notified Transavia the next day and still haven’t heard ANYTHING back (3 weeks later) so decided to go public.
I immediately formally reported this to the Dutch ILT and EASA (screenshot below). I’m curious to hear from other Flying Blue members or crew—has the “Captain’s Discretion” really ever been stretched this far to cover for commercial overbooking?
Did this unique jump seat opportunity violate any rules?
In the United States, the concept of a non-crew member accessing the flight deck during the flight is completely unheard of, and not allowed under any circumstances. However, regulations do differ around the world.
In this case, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulations would apply, so here are the relevant rules about access to the cockpit:
(a) The operator shall ensure that no person, other than a flight crew member assigned to a flight, is admitted to, or carried in, the flight crew compartment unless that person is:
(1) an operating crew member;
(2) a representative of the competent or inspecting authority, if required to be there for the performance of his/her official duties; or
(3) permitted by and carried in accordance with instructions contained in the operations manual.
(b) The commander shall ensure that:
(1) admission to the flight crew compartment does not cause distraction or interference with the operation of the flight; and
(2) all persons carried in the flight crew compartment are made familiar with the relevant safety procedures.
(c) The commander shall make the final decision regarding the admission to the flight crew compartment.
As you can see, that last point gives quite a bit of discretion, as the captain having has say in these situations. That’s how I’d read into this.
Transavia has reportedly launched an internal investigation into this incident, and isn’t commenting on the specifics of the situation. However, the airline notes that its policies regarding the use of jump seats and access to the cockpit is in line with relevant regulations, and that the captain is ultimately responsible for safety on board, and has discretionary power to make decisions.
Regulators don’t plan on pursuing this. One passenger onboard isn’t happy about that, and is claiming that this represents a breach of contract on the carrier’s part, which seems like a bit of a stretch to me:
“When I travel on a flight, I want to be able to assume that it is safe. They could just as easily have put someone on board who might have a psychotic episode, or do something unexpected.”
I can see both sides here. Personally I’m inclined to give the captain the benefit of the doubt:
- Of course as an aviation geek, this would be a dream come true, and I would never be so excited to volunteer in an overbooked flight situation
- I think the captain was being selfless here, and was just trying to get everyone to their destination; ultimately having people in the cockpit made the flight less pleasant for the pilots (I’d assume), so I think the captain was just trying to help
- While aviation of course operates under a system of best practices, I don’t personally view this as being a big risk, but I’m sure others will disagree
I am curious what exactly prompted this decision, though? Did the captain come up with this idea all on his own, was it suggested by the company, or…?
Bottom line
A Transavia flight from Egypt to the Netherlands was oversold, so the captain seemingly came up with a creative solution, which was to seat two passengers in the cockpit. This is certainly unconventional, but it allowed everyone to get on the flight.
I imagine that opinions on this will be split — us aviation geeks will probably think this is super cool, while others may have a different take. For the young girl seated in the cockpit, I suspect this is a trip she won’t soon forget.
What do you make of this Transavia cockpit situation?
