david13579

Most small luggage are around 6 pounds, 6 + 9 = 15. How strict are they with carry-on weight? (Refering here to economy with that 15lbs limit)

watery

Hello and welcome!

I have never been, nor heard anyone ever be, weighted carry-on at the gate with CX or KA. In other words I'd say they are fairly loose. My own rule of thumb is the dimension (it fits in the overhead bin) and that you can lift the carry-on to the bin by yourself.

Also there are bundled checked allowance you may use, unless you prefer taking everything as carry-on (say for security or convenience).

david13579

Judt a regular 20 inch spinner and perhaps a not so big backpack as a personal item.

My spinner is almost 7 lbs and it was one of the lightest hardcover spinners I saw.

alphaod

They rarely weigh unless you're trying to carry what looks like checked baggage onboard or the flight is really booked and you're flying with a lot of tourists.

If you have any sort of status, they will typically ignore you.

casbroker

On a recent flight from MEL - HKG, the check in agent next to mine was weighing carry on luggage and told the pax that his carry on was too heavy. I didn't examine his bag in detail but it looked like a standard cabin carry-on.

I've never had CX weigh my cabin luggage (though Air New Zealand did it once and said I had to check in the bag for being 1kg over - I was flying business)

Audio

This is not a budget airline...so, they don't really care.

I have seen big suitcase being lugged into the cabin.....or carry-on that requires 2 person to lift it up into the overheads.

Travelling shouldn't be a chore. Just have what you need in a light bag and off you go. Check in the rest.

I have people telling me that they need to carry everything with them because:-

(1) They are following George Cloony's advice that you save 18 min off the baggage claim by carry everything with you.

(2) Bad experiences of losing their check-in baggage.

I only had 2 instances of delayed baggage and these were in the early 90s.

As long as you are happy lugging your baggages everywhere you go, why should I complain?

(Audio)

Engineering Travel

Some out stations do weigh carry on. I have had this happen at MAN, where my laptop bag, was weighed at 11Kg, and I was asked to transfer some items to my hold luggage. For status MPC members the weight allowance increases.

JeCCo

If it's CX agents at outports they basically never weigh check-in, particularly if you're a MPO member.

Sometimes when it's third party contractors doing the ground ops then they seem to go by the book and weigh the bags but this is still rare and has never personally happened to me in 10 or so years.

sxc

Back to the original question - IF they decide they want to be strict on carry on baggage, yes the limit includes the weight of the bag itself.

kawaii

My mom is a MPO member and got told to check her carry-on because it was a a few pounds overweight, ex-JFK, and charged her for the extra checked luggage @ 150USD a pop.

Psychiatrist

Interesting anecdote - about a month ago, in the business class check in counter at HKG.

Loud argument at the next counter while I walked up to the check in counter. Asian woman, loud, angry, yelling in English.

Of course I did not have any clue as to what started the argument. She was flying to [a US destination] in Y.

Passenger refused to allow staff to weigh her hand carry suitcase (which looked smaller than my Rimowa 56cm large cabin size). She had no check in luggage. She only had one hand carry suitcase and a small handbag.

Staff told her that they need to weigh it before she is allowed to take it on board. She refused and said she is entitled to take that piece of hand luggage on board.

After a lot of arguing, she agreed to put it on the scale and had difficulty lifting it onto the scale. Staff told her that it was at least 15kg above the limit (I forgot how much over, but it was quite a lot).

Staff then said that she will not be allowed to board the flight with that hand carry suitcase. They said they could check it in, or put part of the contents into a CX cardboard box and they can send it as checked luggage.

More arguments ... I don't know how it ended as I got my boarding pass and left.

Exact details may not be accurate (the flight, the weight over the limit etc...)

So I guess they can enforce the weight rule for hand luggage?

cxfan1960

Of course they can. If they don't weigh it at check in, HKIA security may weigh it. If not, they may still have to check it in after boarding.

Ausriver

My ex girlfriend was stopped once at boarding gate at HKG by KA because her Tumi carry on was too fat. It was very full though and she had to take her jacket and jumper out and carry them in hand in order to board... what's the real difference? The minute she board, she put everything back in.

chfshifter

Since some airlines allow 23kg (e.g. BA) carry ons, what would HKIA security realistically do when/if they weigh the luggage? Cross check which airline the passenger is taking and the weight limit for hand carrys?

cxfan1960

HKIA security did weigh my wife carry-on several years ago, but I haven't heard much about that these few years.

They can send the passenger back to the airline to get an exception tag.