Originally Posted by miles4all
Dont risk the walk up and down! Even if you are not the Elite member, just ask for the orange tag.
Most bags close to the max allowed size are rejected, because of the handles and wheels. It will then not fit in their rack.
They will also look at the weight and 7kg is max!
Small extra bag (handbag and such) should be possible.
I can verify this is still happening. Two of us were flying on NWA out of HKG. We had one standard (21"?) carryone rollerboard each, as well as another shoulder bag. The attendants were not interested in the shoulder bags (or the fact that we each had two bags), but wanted us to put our rollerboards in the metal cage. Because of the handle and wheels, the bag didn't fit into the metal cage.
The attendants didn't want to hear that we're flying on a 744 that has AMPLE carry-on storage space, they stated this is HKG airport policy (the dumbest thing I have ever heard!)
We tried being sneaky, by walking from the North security entrance to the South one (which is manned by different attendants), but that attempt bore the same (rejected) fruits...
Lastly, we walked back to the NW counter, and were promptly handed the orange tags.
What's really funny is that once we were through security, we noticed TONS of people with bags that had the orange tags... What's the point anyhow???