I'm going to be flying ICN > HKG > SFO in about 3 weeks and have never flown Cathay before. I understand that both ICN and HKG, along with Cathay, are all pretty strict about weight limits for carry-ons.

I have a camera backpack that's going to weigh in almost exactly at their 7kg limit. I'm going to try to ensure that it doesn't go over, because I really can't be forced to check the bag. If necessary I'll put one of my ~1kg lenses in a pocket while they weigh the bag.

Additionally, I'll have a laptop in a briefcase-like soft bag, which I understand counts as my personal item. Are personal items weighed, and if so, do they count toward the 7kg hand-carry limit? That's another thing I really can't be asked to check, because like the camera gear, it's expensive, and the data on the laptop (and accompanying external drive) is irreplaceable if lost.

Now we have my checked bags... I called Cathay's baggage department at ICN and talked to them about baggage. Flying economy, I'm entitled to 23kg of weight in each checked bag. That's fine for my guitar case (can you tell by this point I'm bringing home a year's worth of stuff?), but my suitcase is about as large as possibly permissible, and a lot of stuff is going into it. I was told that between 23.01 and 32kg I can pay for excess baggage. If it's around 25kg do you think they'll enforce the policy?

I hate having to cut limits so close on all accounts. I don't mind paying an extra fee; I just don't want to have to check my carry-on since I can't find any trip insurance that covers $6000+ in baggage value.

I'm pretty sure 25kg is going to be okay. I've been told unofficially that they allow up to 25kg check in.

As for carry on, I don't know why you think they are strict about carry on weight. If anything, if your bags don't look excessive then it should be fine. They are more concerned about size than weight.

I basically had done some googling, but it doesn't prove a lot.

My camera backpack is actually small as far as camera backpacks go, so it should be well within the limits for size. Same for the laptop bag.

agreed they are more concerned about size, than weight, of carry ons. They won't know how much it weighs. Unless it looks abnormally large for a carry on, they are not going to ask to weigh it. Have never in hundreds of flights on CX had my carry on bags weighed.

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

I recently found that my backpack is actually 7KG ish alone when it hurst my back when I cough.

I normally bring 1 camera bag, 1 backpack and 1 computer bag ex HKG and never got complained.

you dun need to worry about Cathay as they are always quite generous to passengers in this sense.

I flew them last year on Y, I carried 15KG+ handcarry, plus my laptop, plus my suits and they are more than happy to help you with that. who would bother to check your hand carry weight

Actually, when I flew on Singapore Air from SFO to ICN they weighed my hand carry luggage at the ticket counter.

Thanks for the reassurance, guys!!

I regret that letsflythere seems to be posting less than accurate information aka poor advice in the CX forum ; I suggest you read a previous post
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...y-baggage.html
As a MPO member over 30 years and holding top tier membership over the latter years I have had my carryon bag weighed numerous times.

Then you are extremely unlucky. As I fly numerous times I have never been weighted (though I only carry a small suitcase and a med kit.) The point is I've seem so many people around me carrying literally what seems like their life belongings on board, all kinds of huge bags that some of them take out a cabin on their own, and they are really heavy too as I help lift some up. There was a couple of middle-age folks that bought up 4 huge bags that took away 4 cabins which prompted other pax to complain and the FA to scramble to offer the other pax to put their bags "elsewhere".

Sometimes I do wish CX make some kind of enforcement. Like weight limits for checked bags that you don't want to over-enforce but there should be some kind of enforcement.

CX weighs my carry-on about once a year. My carry-ons are always small and light. When mine was weighed at SFO last time (December), I think it was only 7kg with my notebook inside. It was voluntary. It was very obvious that it was far below 15kg.

Perhaps they do that more to DMs to ensure that they will not get stopped for over the standard carry-on allowance.

My wife never has her carry-ons weighed by CX. However, HKIA weighed her carry-on before, but never mine.

I have less problem with weight than size. Too many people take away a full cabin with their "carry-on" that is so huge (for cabin storage) that it's ridiculous. I am so glad I have priority boarding that I can get first shot at putting my stuff up. Of course it boils my blood when they come up later and try to squeeze my things to the side with my laptop and especially my CPAP med kit. I had to stop one pax from simply jamming his luggage in the cabin with my stuff with total disregard of my med kit and suitcase as if they are cotton.

Previous posts consider that if the size is Ok the weight does not matter. The weight aspect is supposedly for safety reasons. On a Finnair flight in J to Helsinki a cabin attendant, contrary to airline advice to be careful, opened the bin above my head carelessly and my large Toshiba laptop fell out 2+ meters onto my right knee. I was on my way to a trade show in Europe and had to walk around with a massive bruise around my kneecap. Needless to say the laptop gave up the ghost. (She just walked away without saying anything !) If pax cannot lift up their own bags they should not be taking them on board and flights should carry a small digital scale so they can offload overly heavy ones to the hold.
In OP's message he is leaving Incheon and then transiting HKG to SFO so he has 2 chances of being caught out. It would be interesting to know how he gets on. Here is a useful link for OP.
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Cat...ys/baggage.php

I really hope you're not as quiet as the FA that walked away. 1) Hope you're ok now. 2) Hope you got some kind of compensation for that reckless behavior.

well, since you asked, that was just the start of the fiasco with Finnair.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/archive/t-1011878.html
They flatly refused in Frankfurt to check my bag through to HKG (so much for oneworld) , their lounge in Helsinki is a tiny dump, they lost my bag (first time ever I have had a lost bag) they refused to compensate me for the laptop damage and offered me 50 Euros for the lost bag which I told them to shove it where it best fits.

A reminder that we all need lobbyists to push for passenger bill of rights.