Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave

What I think our perhaps over-terse OP is referring to is that if he has 4 bags, and therefore has to pay an excess charge, is that 4th bag kept to 23 kgs or 32kgs.

Now this is well outside my experience, but what I think it is is that there are actually 2 charges here - one for the extra bag, and potentially one for the being overweight. And Emeralds (not just Golds) are waived from having to pay that overweight fee whether on the allowance or the excess allowance. So in essence it is 32 kgs.