Regarding my trip on Eva, as it turned out, my carry on on the outbound portion weighed in at 9.5 kgs, and on the return portion, weighed in at 13.5 kgs, so I just checked that bag, and carried on only the computer bag, which weighed on outbound 5.5 kgs, and on return 6.5 kgs.

The large carry on was just too heavy to lug around. No bags were lost or delayed for long at any of the airports I passed thru -- LAX, LHR, JFK, EWR.

Luckily, the carry on has wheels, so I was able to handle all my luggage with just the two hands. Surprisingly, LAX has free trolleys for pax use, whereas JFK and EWR makes you rent the smartcarts for $5 per cart. I didn't fly into LHR as I had cruised to London so don't know if LHR has free trolleys for arriving flight pax use. At LAX, getting from one terminal to another is a real bummer, as there is only this bus shuttle service, necessitating lots of baggage loading and unloading. But flying on Cont'l Airlines, each checked bag costs $25 ($23 if paid online beforehand); dropping off the bag at curbside usually involves a tip of about $2 to the handler. And food service at US based airlines - forget it. And food at airline lounges, even at major airports like JFK/EWR/LAX, just apples, packaged cookies, toasted bagels, and coffee/tea service. Alcohol costs extra, I believe. We are spoiled by lounges at Asian airports, and by food service on Asian based airlines.