Not hard to believe to me either. First, the invitations into the cockpit are not that unusual. Second, to me it is symptomatic of a slightly schizophrenic airline where formal procedures are effectively very passenger-antagonist but where many individuals, acutely aware of that, try to make up for that in whatever way they can and stretch the system to its limits.

To clarify, I do NOT think that this is the right way to service recovery as in my view it is symptomatic of the airline's systemic flaws. There should be an efficient pro-active system that would enable and encourage agents to nip problems in the bud and sort them before or as they occur (there is none whatsoever, AF is extremely poor on that front); then there should be an efficient reactive system to compensate fairly and effectively when problems really could not be avoided or sorted at the root (there is a system, its effectiveness is debatable). Additional bonuses like a cockpit visit are great but in my view should not be service recovery instruments (let alone instead of) but can be wonderful ways to make someone's trip special regardless of whether they experienced recent problems or not.