At a Virgin America employee seminar last fall, it was time for some role-playing. Patrick Cournoyer, an in-flight manager, was pretending to be a tricky female passenger.
“I am not putting my bag on the floor of this airplane,” he snapped.
“How about in the overhead bin?” asked Patricia Nobles, the bubbly flight attendant assigned the role opposite Cournoyer’s difficult It Bag owner.
Outside, over the bay, planes were drifting down to land at the nearby San Francisco International Airport. Inside the Virgin America headquarters, emotions were rising.
“Do you know how much this bag is worth?” Journeyer countered.
Even the prickly-fashionista impersonator
“Yes I do, and if I had one I wouldn’t want to let go of it either,” Nobles replied with the reverence of one who knows her Hermès from her Hervé. “But how about I wrap it between two blankets for you, stow it overhead, and as soon as the seat-belt sign is turned off, I’ll run down the aisle and give it back to you ? I promise! Please!”