In situation like this, he should have simply tell the ground staff that he holds a priority 1B ticket (if in fact that he is really holding a priority 1 ticket). I am sure te ground staff and the manager will not want to lose their job as they are not following procedure here.
Final note, the reason why I am questioning the sim instructor priority 1B ticket to go home is that sim instructor will only get roster priorty 1 ticket if he is flying to hong kong to start his work cycle. Other travel is usually priority 8 or 9, according to Vol 1.