Mafai

I'd say you can maybe get away with 1 to 2 kg over. Depends on airport and agent. Which airport are you looking at? More often than not, I've seen people pay the for the excess weight, some paid with miles too!

midlevels

Under old system, it used to be that agents would allow following leeway without charging:

Y: 3kgs over limit
J: 10kgs over limit
F: Not sure

Under new system not sure if they have been told to be more strict about enforcement, or if the old leeway still applies.

Ausriver

the 3kg and 10kg is called "soft" and as far as I know, no more soft.

So 40.9kg showing on the scale will be maximum a none status J pax could check in.

midlevels

So basically, actual weight limit is same as before but just adding piece limit

Ausriver

Indeed yes. They will allow couple of KGs over for status J pax, just like previously DM/GO can have more than 3kg soft allowance when flying in Y or PEY, as long as they check with a supervisor.

Australia - China via HKG has been offering 30kg for all Y, PEY and J pax for several years and it is actually a reduction for Y pax of 3 kg. And V class ex AU used to have no rebooking fee now they want t charge $60 per change.

The only good thing is that I can take the advantage of cheap China-Australia PEY fare, and have the same luggage allowance & free rebooking, + some times you get the China-HKG section in J.

Cathay Dragon 666

I did not know there was soft. I do know once, as DM, I had to stuff a luggage with 40 kg in C class. I was ready to pay a fee and even had my cc out. The agent said let me just call my supervisor, said something, and just slap a Heavy sticker on and told me no charge.

Now, my wife, a few years back, traveling alone as GR, was 0.5 kg over, and the agent told her to take something out or pay a fine. She was C class and was paying full fare due to last minute flying. Now she is a loyal EVA FF on her business trips.

corfe mixture

Having different rules depending on when you bought your tickets, rather than when you fly is daft as it is resulting in some very annoying anomolies.

We normally travel on BA with a total (for two people) of around 65-70Kg of checked baggage (well within our allowance of 64kg each), and with very little (perhaps 5kg each) cabin baggage (we see no point in carrying any more than is absolutely necessary on board - one change of clothes, book, electronics etc).

OK I was aware of the 30kg allowance when I booked, but because we normally travel with very little cabin baggage we had planned a work around in that we will move around 5kg over to our normally light cabin baggage.

However, what I now have to deal with is the knowledge that despite having paid for a J class ticket, we have have a total of 10kg less allowance than a couple who recently purchased a premium economy ticket, and has not best pleased me as I would very much like not have to hand carry any more than I need for the flight.

Ok, as I say, I do have a work around, but it is more than a little annoying to know that I have to carry on baggage which should go in the hold simply because a person who booked a premium economy ticket in late September is apparently a more valued customer that a person who booked a business class ticket in early September.


Definitely sends a negative message regarding Cathay's appreciation of the value of premium class passengers.

Ausriver

DM would have at least 50kg written done luggage allowance in C, why would the agent need to call a supervisor?

And for your wife traveling in any class with any airline, 0.5kg over is not over. Even with budget airlines like Jetstar and AirAsia, as long as the number before decimal point showing as your check in allowance, you are not over. The check in agent for your wife definitely need more training. Unless if your wife was 11.4kg over and she needs to take 0.5kg out.

It seems one of the regular airport I visit HGH constantly has people training at J counter, or maybe I'm just one of the complicated pax. I often hear senior staff give training and "soft" was the word they used to describe 3kg, 3kg and 10kg for Y, W and J pax (no F at HGH). My work travel requires me to carry a lot of luggage and I always have to push it to my limit. Not once I would have been questioned if I stayed within the soft. Ocaassionally check in agent tried to lecture me about being over and doing me a favour though.

cysyuen

Hello I am just wondering if the weight rule is strictly enforced i.e. would I pay a fine as a OWE in Y if I check in 3 boxes of cup noodles?

Ausriver

Maybe you will getaway if you play innocent

corfe mixture

So are you saying that, if my wife and I (who have J class tickets with the old 30kg baggage allowance) turn up at LHR, HKG (Central) and SYD with three bags weighing around 68kg and 5kg each of hand baggage, I will definitely not need to re-pack at the airport and move some items into our cabin baggage in order to get our checked bags down to a total of 60kg?


Particularly interested in confirmation for HKG (Central), as we have an evening flight out the SYD and it is our intention to take our checked bags to Central station in the morning and, as we will be checking out of the hotel around lunchtime, we don't have any real need to take our hand baggage with us when we go to Central to check in.

Ausriver

68kg for 2 J Pax should be fine, both in the old system or current system. If you're worried, you could even call up CX and ask for them for update the luggage allowance to current for you. I have done it once for one of my J ticket issued before 15th Sep, the agent was little confused at the beginning and said she would check with manager, 30 minutes later, I received the updated ticket in the email and a phone call. However I'm not sure if my DM status helped.

corfe mixture

Thanks for that info.


In terms of re-ticketing to give you the increased allowance, I'm sure your DM status helped.


I phoned CX office in London a couple of weeks ago and asked for the increased allowance only to be told that they had instructions from Hong Kong that they were not to increase the allowances for tickets purchased before 15th Sept, but I will try again.

Must say, we typically travel with three rigid (zipless) Carlton cases between us, which does no seem to me to be excessive, and and this is the first time I can ever remember even thinking about our check in baggage allowance.

Whatever, many thanks for the reassuring information. Based on that, my game plan is to pack as normal for my LHR departure and assume that if I do not need to move weight at check in, then I will have no problem at HKG when I don't really want to have to carry 7-8 kg of extra hand baggage around all day.


CM




EDIT:


Just phoned again and asked what the likelihood was that we would be asked to transfer weight to our hand baggage and was told that it really depends on the agent who checks me in, but unless I am lucky, I will probably have a problem with 68kg and they will probably ask me to move 8kg to our hand baggage.


Sounds like I am going to have to lug 8kg extra hand baggage around HKG for a whole day before our flight to SYD.
Definitely a D- from me for Cathay in terms of their appreciation of J class passengers

kaka

Owe gets 3 pcs. Cup noodles just tape them tgt...

Cathay Dragon 666

Because I have 3 baggages, two of them are 25kg, and the 3rd one is 40 kg, for a grand total of 90 kg. The two 25kg she can slip by, but she said she needed to asked about the 40kg one. Especially this clause:

"Any baggage that weighs more than 32kg / 70lbs or measures more than 203cm / 80in in total dimension must be repacked into split-up units within these limits. Your bag’s total dimension is the sum of its width, height and length."