Does Cebu Pacific weigh one's carry on bags ?
 

Just purchased a Hong Kong to Cebu ticket on Cebu Pacific. Noted that one is allowed ONE piece of carry on baggage of maximum weight 7kg.

Normally I travel with a wheeler carry on PLUS a backpack, which actually fits into the wheeler carry on if I have to, and never check in luggage. Normally the combined weight of the two is probably around 9kg, and most full-service airlines won't bother challenging me.

Does 5J actually weight your carry on bags at check in ? Can you bypass the check in counters if you online check in and have boarding pass on hand ? How likely would they enforce the baggage rules and at least ask me to check in the wheeler ? Want to see if I should purchase the basic check in allowance of 15kg instead.

If you want to roll the dice then go ahead. One FT contributor's experience does NOT mean you will have the same experience. The rules of the airline are available for everyone to read.

Concerned enough to take your chances over a few dollars? Go ahead. Otherwise, then pay the extra and be content that you won't be surprised by higher last minute fees at the airport counter - never mind irritating others who want to just check in and move on and really don't care about your baggage issues. I've seen it every time I fly.

YMMV, naturally. If you get caught with paying higher fees, PLEASE let us know and chalk it up to experience. After all, it is just money and not your first-born. I am speaking metaphorically of course :D

As you may have noticed, I am risk-aversive and pay the extra for extra baggage (especially on Air Asia X) when flying LCC. Otherwise when flying OW or *A I have enough status not to worry about a few kg - but then I have followed my own advice and have paid for lots of flights that give TPs and miles instead of getting heavily discounted economy flights that give no/minimum TPs/miles :rolleyes:

As with most airlines you can have a personal item like a laptop bag or something, if your backpack is small enough they "MIGHT" allow it as a personal item.

Not 5J. They only allow ONE carryon baggage (OP stated that too). Most of time they will weigh it.

If it's only 2kg over, I would suggest to OP to put the 2kg in a shopping bag (like those duty free ones). They don't seem to stop pax from carrying a carryon bag and a bag of duty free purchases :D

Yes even 5j, direct quote from their website.

The above can be found hidden on their ask ceb page, the policy exists and I have used it myself.

I went ahead and looked at the ask ceb page since you mentioned it. It's not consistent with 'baggage info' under 'Important Reminders'. The latter only mentions 1 carryon item allowed, no personal items policy.

Someone needs to update the website to be consistent. Webadmin fees ...

Agreed, it's not consistent but it is there and providing you can show it to the staff if they question you, it's definitely possible to have a personal item as I have had my small messenger bag along with my carry-on bag on more than one flight.
As far as the OP is concerned I have no idea if they will consider a backpack to be a personal item or not, it ultimately depends on size but maybe the Hong Kong staff could be more lenient.

Just to fill you in....

I think backpacks are a stretch to be defined as a personal item (particularly when compared to the size of a lady's handbag). However, the backpack can easily be put into the wheeler carry on to look like there is ONE single piece of carry on. Since there are two of us travelling, the insurance plan is to buy ONE piece of check in luggage allowance of 15kg for the two of us (HK$88 each way), and avoid the potential hassle at check in. Showing up at check in with a piece of luggage up to 15kg costs HK$138 / PHP 900. A rule is a rule - won't try to bend it. Just gambling whether it is worth saving HK$88 now, with the potential downfall of having to pay HK$138 at check in. And also wondering what the personal experience of travelers at HKG and CEB airports have been.

Please tell us your experiences afterward, won't you? Bon voyage :)

At CEB, most of the time there is a 5J staff that "weighs" your carryon either before security or before the pre-departure room. They just lift your bag and estimate your carryon's weight. I've never encountered them using a weighing scale. HTH

In Jan/Feb of this year we took these flights on Cebu: BKK-MNL, MNL-KLO, MPH-MNL, and MNL-USU and only took a carry-on (backpack), and the carry-on was never weighed. We were weighed ourselves plus our bag on the MPH-MNL and MNL-USU flights as those are ATRs and they needed a total weight. Our backbacks barely fit in the overheads of the ATRs, but did fit.

This is actually what happened. The two of us travelled with one check in bag, two back packs, one gym sized bag. On both ways, only the check in bag was weighed. They were not too bothered of the fact that we had three items to carry on board. Saw that many people were travelling with one wheeler carry on PLUS one bag pack each (in both directions), and they were not stopped. Specifically,

Ex HKG
- No physical scales at the gate.
- Many people were flagged at the gate and had to gate check some carry on items. Not sure if they had to pay.
- One lady went on board with FOUR items - one handbag, one gym sized bag, and two shopping bags.
- The Jardine Ground Services people took FOREVER to load the bags and cargo and all the passengers were sitting on board for another 30 minutes waiting for cargo loading before we could leave.

Ex CEB
- No physical scales at the gate.
- Nobody checking the number of items being carried on board and all passengers were just walking through.

So me my mom and my brother (3) are flying to hongkong this april 14 we bought the tickets from cebu pacific. We know that the limit for carry ons are 7kg and since we dont have any check in-s we are worried that we have 6 hand carry on and that they will tell us to pay extra , is that okay if we have that much carry on? And since we have 2 carry on each do they weigh the 2 items together or do they weigh them separately. Just worried cause we tried weighing them both and weighed 10 kg together. Do you think that they will allow us to bring that much carry on items?? Reply asap please

What are the sizes?
You can't take 2 regular sized carry-on bags each but you can take one regular sized carry-on and a smaller item like a laptop case. In December (ex HKG) they didn't check the weight of my carry-on at check-in but the desks were running late thanks to some idiots so that may be why, every other time I fly Cebu Pac I have my carry-on weighed but never weighed the smallish messenger bag (which normally contains around 4KG's of stuff)

If the sizes of your bags are normal cabin size, I would advise to either find smaller bags which are allowed in addition to a normal sized carry-on or pay for extra baggage BEFORE you check-in or it will cost 1200PHP per bag that has to be checked.

My experience from 40+ CebuPac flights over the last 4y is this:
- the policy is 1 carry-on + 1 personal item, never been challenged or seen anybody be challenged. What qualifies as a personal item varies with staff - anything from purse to kitchen sink...
- 5J had scales at MNL T3 for a while, but they are gone. Instead, they now force everybody to the counter and you can't go straight to gate anymore with boarding pass, so no more sneaking through with oversized luggage...
- check-in staff rarely weighs backpacks that are reasonble size, but usually will weigh wheeled carry on...
- I've never had my personal item, usually a small backpack/slingpack weighed... It usually holds a small 11in laptop, gadgets, etc and is heavy...
- whenever I had overweight carry-on, I'd pay for check-in and asked politely to carry on and was allowed to do so... At airports in the Philippines a smile and polite question goes very far...
...of course your personal experience can vary, you might have a 7.1kg bag be rejected or get on with 3 bags... My recommendation is to stay close to the limits, avoid wheeled bags and you should be fine...