Originally Posted by
Hairbone
Hi all,
Soon I'm flying Cathay Pacific for the first time from Manila to San Francisco. When I read the airlines carry-on luggage policy, it says I'm allowed one carry-one bag plus one personal bag with a combined weight of 7KG. I usually fly this route on another airline, and they will usually weigh my carry-on bag but not my personal bag (computer bag). The computer bag can weigh 3 or 4kg because I travel with a laptop and tablet. Based on your experience, is it likely Cathay Pacific will weigh both my carry-on and computer bag when I check-in?
Thanks in advance.
I will counter the previous reply you received. I just got on here to ask a similar question. First-time flyer on Cathay; I flew on 31st March 25 from Chicago O'Hare to Hong Kong (and onward to Bangkok), in
Premium Economy with my family. I had booked a 3-hour connection at Chicago, coming in on an EAS (Essential Air Service) flight from Tennessee that had no interlining with international carriers. I had to retrieve our bags at terminal 2 and schlep them down to terminal 5 and check them with Cathay. Inbound flight arrived an hour late; still had two hours to connect. Got to Cathay and after checking all the bags, agent wants to weigh our carry-ons. Even though I'd seen the 7kg carry-on limit, I didn't give much thought to it and didn't expect it to be enforced, based on previous travel experiences. On Spirit or Allegiant, yes I would expect that. But didn't expect it on a premium international carrier like Cathay. My carry-on was way over, 15kg. To the agent's credit, he was going to let it slide and wasn't going to charge me for it, but he did want to check it as a second bag, supposedly because of the weight. That wasn't making sense to me, and I asked him why it mattered whether it was carried on or checked? I was about to start almost 20 hours of flight to Bangkok, and there were items in that carry-on I wanted to have available to me in-flight. He really couldn't answer my question about why to check it, although he did have a concern about the approaching boarding time for the flight. Ultimately he backed off and let me take it as a carry-on.
There was a big backup for TSA, but we got through it and arrived at the gate just as boarding was starting. Thus, we got onboard with no rush.
I was going to ask here if this concern about carry-on weight was an anomaly? I hadn't traveled internationally for 2 years, and saw a few changes when booking, like the offering of "basic economy" - type fares with only one checked bag and chargeable seat assignments. Had never seen them before on international. So is this carry-on weight something new all around, just with Cathay, or was it an aberration?
I will add that I was also carrying a "personal item", (a notebook in a pouch). They did not weigh that item.