Well sort of – I have never seen or experienced this in my years of flying. I was on UA 233 from MCO to ORD yesterday (3/2). Sitting in 2C watching the people meander by when a family boards. Mother was first followed by a 6 year old girl and an 8 year old girl. The girl dropped her carry on which startled her 4 year old brother who was behind her. Suddenly, the captain says “Sonny, come here and sit in my chair” and points at the boy. He asks if his sister can join him and the pilot invited them up front as well. The pilot sees dad walking on and asks for his camera which the father gives him. He must have took five or six pictures and next thing he tells the co pilot to get into the pictures and then starts explaining everything to the kids on how to fly the plane and what certain instruments do. I can see one of the girls holding the headset and suddenly the PA system comes on. She says “Mom, I am upfront driving the plane”. Other passengers are looking around like who knows what is going on. After about four minutes the fun ends and the kids head back to their seats.
Granted the pilot did not have to do this but I thought that it was an absolutely fantastic gesture on his part and something that those kids will remember forever hopefully.
For all of the complaining that people do about all of the problems with UA, it was heartwarming that this pilot went out of his way to make those kids feel on top of the world at that moment. It was truly the highlight of my day.

PS – After everything calmed down, I walked up to the captain and gave him a GTEM. I told him he deserved a few more for what he did.

^^^

My daughter has been up in the cockpit several times, and allowed to sit in one of the seats and "work" the controls. A couple of times, the pilot walked back and invited her up, and once she asked. She really enjoyed this.

i got invited to sit in the captain's chair for a photo on the 747 once. As long as the plane is blocked in at the gate, I don't think there's anything that you can do to mess up the plane. I remember seeing some cables attached to the plane when they're blocked in, I'm guessing it disables all inputs, so if you hit the throttles for some reason, nothing will happen.
I really wish they had a flight deck camera that they could play on the IFE screens during takeoff and landing, that would be really cool!

I have found most 747 pilots let anyone who wants to sit in the cockpit if there is time before takeoff. I see this to a much lesser degree on other airframes.

I have a pic in my room of me in the cockpit of a 777 when i was younger.

As long as the plane is at the gate this is not a problem.

I really miss when they used to hand out pilot wings.

The 747 pilots once invited my daughter (and all kids nearby) to the cockpit. We have some great pictures of her sitting at the controls. She remembers it fondly, but I think her favorite things about the flight were that she got to watch Hannah Montana in an endless loop on AVOD, and eat as much ice cream as she could cram down her throat. (We were in F.)

They still do. My daughter has several.

I have a series of framed pictures in my office of my son sitting in the captain's chair at age 18 months (UA 777), 5 years (UA 777), 8 years (UA A320) and 11 years old (DL MD88). He has the captain's hat on in all of the pictures.

Until last year, he would ask the FA's if they wanted any help and was always put to work. Almost always, he ended up with a free meal box or a Zip-loc bag full of pretzel packets. Alas, he is getting older now and would rather listen to his iPod or watch a movie instead of helping the crew.

Somewhere in a big box of photos at home, there is a picture of me around 8 years old sitting in the captain's chair of an Allegheny Airlines BAC-111. Back in the stone ages of the early 70's before the world went psychotic, I even got invited to sit in the flightdeck jumpseat for a short hop from BDL to PVD.

My dad brought me up the front of an AA 707 when I was a kid. The crew was just a friendly as our friends on this UA flight. It's one of my fondest memories of childhood flying.

^ to the UA crew and to the OP for sharing the story.
KH

that's good stuff. on my son's first trip to legoland, he has barely any recollection of the park (he was 3 at the time) but vivid memories of sitting in the captain's chair.

I remember the good old days (early 90's) when they let people in the cockpit during flight. I got to sit in the cockpit of a BA 747 chatting with the pilot for over an hour as we were flying over the great white north.

Last trip HKG-SFO-IAD after boarding in HKG was sitting in UD and decided to see if I could take a quick picture of the cockpit for my young boys. Pilot and F/O could not have been nicer, invited me in, had me sit at the controls and snapped a couple of pictures for me to text to the boys (the only bummer was the sun shades were still up). Pilot took plenty of time to talk and showed me the crew rest area.

yup. i flew RIC-FPO (princess airlines maybe???) when I was about 8 with parents/gparents and they let me in the cockpit for about 10-15 seconds. too bad it was an evening flight

I'm fine with inviting kids up to the cockpit while at the gate, letting them sit in the pilot seat, etc. I am most definitely not fine with letting kids use the PA. When I sit down, the iPod comes out and the headphones go on. I'll take the phones off if I hear an announcement, and I would have been irked if I was interrupted for this.

I think this is a combination of the recognition of the type's history and the fact that these are super senior pilots who remember back when this was a frequent occurrence.

+1

On my first 747 ride, our 777 was swapped to the 747, so my seat in C, 13A, meant that I was on the upper-deck.^

After we landed, I took a few pics of the new C and F config, and was invited for a tour of the cockpit and crew quarters... The pilot also started telling me what he disliked about being with United..