seriously who is going to overrule a Vice President of your company for something that has no safety implications?
But it does and I will. The law requires an airliner to be operated by qualified crew who have been trained and checked. The crew are appointed before a flight and everybody else on the flight is a passenger. They do what the crew say. If you are unclear about something, you ask. But you can not overrule the crew, because that encroaches on safety.
I have lost count of the times I have flown senior board members (on two occasions, all of them). When we have advance notice if their presence, my briefing to our colleagues in the cabin is to keep it standard. Nothing more and nothing less and if they have any questions, to speak to me. But not one of them has ever interfered with any aspect of the flight, and that does not surprise me. In fact, they've even assisted by doing PA's for me to explain how things work behind the scenes during delays. They have also helped conjure up services when I've been told there is nothing that can be done. They have asked many questions of us and the most frequent is "Is this normal?" They have also occasionally been disappointed about some aspects. But being professional meant they did this at the correct time and place. And that was after the flight and on the ground. Because in flight, the crew are right even when they are wrong!
PM