Originally Posted by
mikepa
I find it strange that someone who is offered the jump seat wouldn't know he was getting the jump seat (and where it was) and just taking another random seat wouldn't work.
Each airline processes jumpseaters differently. If you're jumpseating on a new (to you) airline you just have to feel your way through their process.
Jumpseaters are usually assigned a seat in the cabin and only ride in the cockpit if all cabin seats are full. Sometimes the Captain will tell the jumpseater to take any open seat. Sometimes the gate agent will have already assigned them to a specific cabin seat.
I've jumpseated on Delta so rarely that I have no idea how their process works.