I always check in online and 9 times out of ten they weigh hand luggage. I've taken to leaving it with my husband if it's heavy and can't be checked (I often carry hand written exam scripts to mark and they really are irreplaceable) and then going and getting it off him after I've checked in.

This technique is well known in the Indian subcontinent and nearly everyone does it. This is why they do a secondary check at DXB at the entrance to emigration control. This is after you have checked the luggage and have your boarding pass .

PS: Haven't entered DXB landside for a year and therefore I'm not sure if they still do it.

missed your post.

The only place where my cabin luggage was checked is ... HND.
First time I fly out with EK, it was packed with literatures and books (don't ask) for a total of 18kg. After several minutes of discussion, the japanese supervisor understood that I won't back-off, and he let me transfer the overweight into my checked baggages which were still on the belt. As the two pieces were already at max, I feared an excess baggage fee, but I don't know if he had pity of me or if he didn't think about it.
Surely, premium cabin and status helped.

Maybe, for a start, airlines should consider removing ridiculously low weight limits for carry on luggage. In EK economy it is 7 kg, if I recall correctly -- which I have reached once I put my shaver into my perfectly sized trolley. For the same bag in business class the weight limit is 14 kg, so it cannot be any safety-related reason for keeping the limit so low in economy class.

Airlines should just become practical, enforce the current size limit on cabin luggage, and allow weight to be "reasonable" (max. ~15-17kg).

42 in j or 300 plus in y hence the 7kg for y!

Cabin size is not the same ...
Nevertheless, the idea is here.
More or less, you can fit three rows of Y (30) for two rows of C (14).
Therefore, the 7kg for Y and 14kg for C makes sense. And F should be entitled to 21kg ! !

They haven't weighed my bag at the f counter for a long time

Did you try HND (Tokyo) ? Never happened before, never happened after.

Flew into there and out of kix

Surprised that they don't check given how closely the Japanese follow rules.

Have my first EK coming up FCO-AKL via DXB/SYD (no choice of airline for this particular trip) . As an experienced 1-bagger I was staggered and frustrated to find EK limiting Y carry-on to a measly 7kg yet has a ridiculous 30kg of checked - if there has to be a weight limit why can it not be a combined one with a reasonable carry-on upper level e.g. 15-20kg. /rant

I never understand why people take so much carry on.

I'm quite puzzled about this.
When I start my journey, the hard cabin case weighs 4kg alone, the PC + charger 3kg (I have no PC bag), change clothes, EK amenity kit (), legal docs, a bottle of drink, teddy bear, all adds up to 10kg.
On return, that's another story. It's fully packed at around 15kg usually, but never exceeds the size of the cabin case.
So, 14kg is a reasonable limit, but, 7kg is too low.

This said, I'm quite pissed off when I see pax with full loads of stuff in their arms (excluding those with babies).
I know there are various reasons :
> pax who don't want to check baggages, to go faster,
> US pax with the habit of paid checked baggage,
> pax who had to show their purchased goods for VAT refund,
> pax with fragile and ... bulky stuff,
> etc.
But, it is causing trouble to other pax.
I understand airlines cannot enforce strictly the rules, and need to have some flexibility (contrary to LCC), but they should definitively ban abusive pax. Those filling one whole rack for example ...

15kg is enough to last me comfortably for three weeks of travel. Anyone who uses FCO regularly will appreciate both the time saved by not checking a bag and the benefit avoidance of giving notoriously light-fingered by heavy-handed FCO baggage handlers a target. I watch some of the vast cases being wheeled by tourists in Rome and wonder how on earth most people manage to fill them. Each to their own but not when flying EK it seems