The reason I vaguely care about an incident like this is not because I have any view or opinion about the Veronicas or what level of celebrity they are, but because too often (though, really it's probably more from time-to-time, or rarely) you run into an FA who's having an off day or decided it's their way or the highway, when clearly there are inconsistencies and confusion about supposed "rules" and "policy", which FA's themselves don't help by creating more confusion by being inconsistent. And then they pull the "you have to follow every direction on-board" card when they feel like it, and make you feel like a criminal for having a differing perspective on trivial matters.
For example, on so many flights on QF sitting in row 4 with IFE system in arm rest, FA's consistently allowed me to have the screen out until the seat-belt sign went on. Then one day an FA decided that the rule was actually to put it away as soon as the prepare-cabin-for-landing announcement was made. Well, even after politely indicating that the seat belt sign was not on yet, was I the worst person ever for suggesting that on every other flight I'd been allowed to keep the screen up until then, and it's a wonder the AFP wasn't called on me, or even worse, thrown off the plane mid-flight! I don't think it helped that a CSM was paxing in seat 4B (me in 4A), so I feel like the FA felt they had to "enforce" the stricter version of the rules in front of them. That CSM did actually explain to me the rules are that they are meant to be stowed as soon as the announcement is made (who'd have known!) but agreed generally FA's allow them to remain up until the seat belt sign was off.
It's easy to imagine that the ladies with short stature could've easily lifted their bag (there's no qualification of how large or heavy it was.. so I don't know why people are harping on that as though this is a discussion again about large or heavy carry on...) and prop it on the edge and then push it in. The issue at hand is that they mistakenly put it in wheels facing out, and the FA wanted it turned around. Perhaps the ladies already knew they would require assistance to retrieve the bag at the end of the flight, and had fortunately been rendered such polite assistance in the past (thank God that not everyone in the world is a rude impolite un-assisting a**eh**e, like so many make people out to be...).
For the FA to turn this into a "you have to obey every instruction on-board or else you're going to get thrown off the plane" is, imo, ridiculous. Even more so from some of the reports that the people in this instance were not belligerent. Regardless, I've seen FA's get into a tizz even if the pax is not rude, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same in this case. Though of course, I wasn't there.
