There’s certainly a difference between ‘booking’, and ‘permission’. What appears to be happening now is, the non-crew members will be booked in the cockpit without the knowledge of the Captain, and on review of the release 1 hour prior to push-back, he’ll realize there’s a non-crewmember cockpit jumpseater. He’s THEN obligated to either take the jumpseater, or explain in a letter to the VP Flight Ops why he bumped [him]. The FOM has a specific procedure for requesting a cockpit jumpseat. There’s also a matrix on which flights require Captain’s Permission, and how to obtain that permission.

I think the Captain’s response to an unknown cockpit jumpseater, other than those listed with authorization (FAA, LCA, CIA, etc) would be, a permission request was not received and permission was not granted. We aren’t part of the booking process.

Obtaining Captain’s Permission Procedure

Contact the Captain via e-mail and copy [email protected] in the initial request.
Reference the flight number and Z flight date in the e-mail subject line.
If the Captain approves the request he will “reply all” via e-mail stating his approval.

Right now it appears to me ALL cockpit seats on the MD and the -777 require Captain’s permission to FLY, and that’s referencing the FedEx FAA approved FOM in section 2, pages 2-36 thru about 2-40.