thanks guys for the responses and help. im so stressed because my travel mates aka my family, are bringing too much. and most of our luggage that will be checked in is so close to 70 Ibs like around 65-68 Ibs. I'm scared that the weighing scale at JFK might be different and say our boxes are over 70 (I hope not). as for the hand carry, there's 5 of us and each of us will have one. one of the hand carries is a nike duffle bag which is over the allowed length by like 3". that's why i was wondering if Cathay at JFK is strict. if we are unable to get some of our baggage on/below the limit, how much does Cathay charge??

well we leave saturday morning (flight leaves 10:10AM). since we live in Jersey about 1 hour away from JFK, we will be leaving the house around 5AM. i hope everything will be fine. like i said, i really dont feel like opening boxes (that are taped) and then moving items from box to box infront of other passengers. its embarrassing.