Suitcase weight

[Englishman2010]

I thought I'd load all the the presents I'm taking over to the Phil's with me into my suitcase and weigh it to see how much I've got left for clothes.

Baggage allowance with KLM to HK is 20kg, and with PAL from HK to Manila is also 20kg's.

I'm already upto 18kgs before I put my own clothes and toiletries in there. Looks like I'll be taking a pair of flip flops, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with me:doh

At least my case will be light on the return journey :icon_lol:

[Steve.r]

The last time i went I had a 25kg limit. I was just 2kg over when i packed and did not have any problems as I went through the airport. It was full of presents and clothes. Like you though Ian, you can kit yourself out in Phils with no problems. When i left, my case was empty as I left all my summer clothes in our house. It only means that there will be more room for chocholate on my next visit :doh

[JimOttley]

KLM Switched to a piece concept earlier in the year.

Economy ticket gives you 1 checked in bag up to 23 kg since 28th March this year. Not a lot of use for you as the second flight is PAL but you may find that PAL is reasonable for excess baggage or you could upgrade to business class on PAL it can be ludicrously cheap to do that :)

I get the economy allowance + 1 additional bag up to 23 kg, don't know what I'll do when I lose my status in 2012 :( I always try to make maximum use of my allowance every time.

[JimOttley]

The last time i went I had a 25kg limit. I was just 2kg over when i packed and did not have any problems as I went through the airport. It was full of presents and clothes. Like you though Ian, you can kit yourself out in Phils with no problems. When i left, my case was empty as I left all my summer clothes in our house. It only means that there will be more room for chocholate on my next visit :doh

Most of my clothes and shoes are over there already too. :)

To be honest you should buy the chocolate at the duty free when you arrive, a big bag or two of Lindt is not that expensive and makes more sense than filling up a suitcase with expensive sweets from here.

[grahamw48]

+ Wear 6 layers of clothes, with pockets well filled, and LARGE camera bag around your neck,
bumbag too. ..all permitted. :)

[Dedworth]

A pity KLM don't give you the 46kg allowance to Honkers

[Terpe]

In those situations I do as Steve.r does and buy my stuff in Phils.
I have found that duty free shop at Manila to be a real rip-off. I bought loads of chocolate and found it cheaper at the mall.
In fact I have not found much in the Manila duty free that is cheaper than LHR or HK or even Phils shopping mall.
You can carry on loads of Duty free.

[JimOttley]

In those situations I do as Steve.r does and buy my stuff in Phils.
I have found that duty free shop at Manila to be a real rip-off. I bought loads of chocolate and found it cheaper at the mall.
In fact I have not found much in the Manila duty free that is cheaper than LHR or HK or even Phils shopping mall.
You can carry on loads of Duty free.

That's a fair point I have noticed it getting more expensive recently, I still find it more convenient to buy at that end, I don't smoke but I usually buy a block of Marlboro for the guys as well and I'm fairly sure that's cheaper over there?

[JimOttley]

+ Wear 6 layers of clothes, with pockets well filled, and LARGE camera bag around your neck,
bumbag too. ..all permitted. :)

During the worst of the paranoia a couple of years back I was forced by an officious pratt at Glasgow airport to ditch a 40 quid camera bag, it actually had a small video device in it and that ended up in the voluminous pockets of my foul weather jacket, even after that he still was not keen on letting me through security with my small SLR camera round my neck and this was while flying KLM!

His supervisor gave me the nod and let me through in the end.

It was out of order, since then I always made sure I had my jacket and maybe a fleece with some extra pockets underneath, it doubles as a pillow once onboard, just in case I need to decant items into my pockets. The foul weather jacket can be handy in rainy season too :)

[Englishman2010]

If KLM give 23kgs I should be ok, as I wont take that much clothing anyway. My only concern is that I will be in HK for 4 days and might need some warmer and smarter clothes there. I may just do what Graham says and wear 6 layer of clothes when I check in at the KLM desk in Birmingham.
If I am a bit over PAL's 20kg allowance I can take a few bit out of my case and put them in a carrier bag. Qatar made me do that last year when I was about 10kg over.

If any of you do want to buy cigarettes, get them from a 7-11 in any town, they are just as cheap. 200 Marlboro at the airport is 10 USD or 400 Php at a 7-11

edit, thinking about it, I'm sure 200 ciggies was 15 USD at NAIA, definitely worth getting from a 7-11

[grahamw48]

Cigs are MUCH more expensive at NAIA, in fact everything is. That's how they make their money. I do like the cafe upstairs though, to kill time in. Used to be able to smoke in there too.

I take absolute minimum of baggage...usually just carry-on, unless staying for a few months.

Buy my clothes there for next to nothing...except shoes, which they don't sell in my size, and buy a cheap bag to take my booty home in at the end of the trip, because of course luggage bags are dirt-cheap there too. :)

[JimOttley]

If KLM give 23kgs I should be ok, as I wont take that much clothing anyway. My only concern is that I will be in HK for 4 days and might need some warmer and smarter clothes there. I may just do what Graham says and wear 6 layer of clothes when I check in at the KLM desk in Birmingham.
If I am a bit over PAL's 20kg allowance I can take a few bit out of my case and put them in a carrier bag. Qatar made me do that last year when I was about 10kg over.

If any of you do want to buy cigarettes, get them from a 7-11 in any town, they are just as cheap. 200 Marlboro at the airport is 10 USD or 400 Php at a 7-11

edit, thinking about it, I'm sure 200 ciggies was 15 USD at NAIA, definitely worth getting from a 7-11

Well I wish I had figured that out some years ago :D I stopped smoking 24 years ago, it didn't even occur to me to look at the prices in the shops :D

Yeah KLM is 23 kg just now, you will often get away with 1 and a bit kg over, I've done that a few times in the past.

If I wore 6 full layers of clothes I wouldn't be able to fasten the seatbelt :D indeed I would probably collapse from heat exhaustion at the pub in the first airport :D

[subseastu]

I'm 6 ft 4ins so I have real problems getting clothes out in the phils, so unfortunatly I have to take most of the stuff with me.

Regarding checking in bags last time the wife and me went back she had a small handbag and a medium sized grip for carry on. At check in we where told that its only ONE bag per person in the cabin. OK fair enough managed to stuff her handbag into one of the other bags and as soon as we checked in she got it out again. Afterall its just a small handbag that was kept with her during the flight that took up no room. But then when we get on the plane the amount of people that where coming on with 4 or 5 bags was amazing. How the f### do they get away with that!! Really winds me up:cwm23::angry:. Every flight I take (which is a fair few with work) I see these people. Saw one lot once, 3 people and counted 11 bags struggling down the aisle!!!!:cwm23:

I'm 6 ft 4ins so I have real problems getting clothes out in the phils, so unfortunatly I have to take most of the stuff with me.

Regarding checking in bags last time the wife and me went back she had a small handbag and a medium sized grip for carry on. At check in we where told that its only ONE bag per person in the cabin. OK fair enough managed to stuff her handbag into one of the other bags and as soon as we checked in she got it out again. Afterall its just a small handbag that was kept with her during the flight that took up no room. But then when we get on the plane the amount of people that where coming on with 4 or 5 bags was amazing. How the f### do they get away with that!! Really winds me up:cwm23::angry:. Every flight I take (which is a fair few with work) I see these people. Saw one lot once, 3 people and counted 11 bags struggling down the aisle!!!!:cwm23:

[Englishman2010]

The things that bugs me is the number of obese people who get on flights and still expect the standard baggage allowance. Surely they should weigh the passenger and their baggage and limit the overall weight per passenger to say 110 - 120kg per passenger.

I weigh 70kgs, so with a 20Kg allowance and 5Kg of hand baggage I'm adding 95Kg to the aircrafts overall weight. Why should someone who weighs say 130kg's be allowed the same baggage allowance as me?

There's also the issue of obese people taking up more than their fair share of the seat, I always seem to get put next to the fattest person on the plane and find I'm squashed into my seat like a sardine in a can because my neighbours lardy **** and flab flops into my space

[grahamw48]

Totally agree. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

I believe some American airlines are charging fat people for 2 seats now aren't they ?

I suppose planes were having difficulty getting off the ground there. :icon_lol:

[Steve.r]

Totally agree. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

I believe some American airlines are charging fat people for 2 seats now aren't they ?

I suppose planes were having difficulty getting off the ground there. :icon_lol:

My best friend is morbitly obese, but he is such a nice guy. He struggles with his diet, but in the last year has lost 3 stones. I often tell him to come to Phils for a holiday, but he is very self conscious about his weight and upsetting people in that exact manner you guys describe. I can see things from both sides of the fence, having also experienced a tight seating arrangement and having a large friend.

[grahamw48]

I'm sure he is a nice person, but the fact is that obesity IS a huge problem in the Western world, and for the majority of those affected it is simply a matter of gluttony, combined with a rubbish diet and the availability of cheap food.

If I smoke, then I can expect to be criticised for polluting the air of non-smokers.
Likewise, if an obese person encroaches on my personal space because they won't accept having to pay for more than one seat...

[Steve.r]

I'm sure he is a nice person, but the fact is that obesity IS a huge problem in the Western world, and for the majority of those affected it is simply a matter of gluttony, combined with a rubbish diet and the availability of cheap food.

If I smoke, then I can expect to be criticised for polluting the air of non-smokers.
Likewise, if an obese person encroaches on my personal space because they won't accept having to pay for more than one seat...

I agree with you Graham, and I know him well enough to tell him to his face. It is a sad fact of modern living in the west.

[Englishman2010]

I'm sure he is a nice person, but the fact is that obesity IS a huge problem in the Western world, and for the majority of those affected it is simply a matter of gluttony, combined with a rubbish diet and the availability of cheap food.

If I smoke, then I can expect to be criticised for polluting the air of non-smokers.
Likewise, if an obese person encroaches on my personal space because they won't accept having to pay for more than one seat...

Absolutely Graham:xxgrinning--00xx3: I get sick of hearing the reason people is fat is down to genetics, it is down to stuffing their faces with a crap diet and too much food. I'm 6 feet tall and weighed 14 stones 10 years ago, that's probably average for my height and build, but I decided I wanted to slim down and through a good and healthy diet (no processed food) and minimal exercise I have maintained my weight at 11 to 11 1/2 stone for the last 10 years

[grahamw48]

I'm 6'1" and 12 stone...same as I was at 21.

I can only attribute this to chronic lack of nutrition due to being too lazy to go shopping, coupled with being a smoker. :rolleyes:

Go up to 14st. when I stop smoking and start eating. :)

[JimOttley]

Absolutely Graham:xxgrinning--00xx3: I get sick of hearing the reason people is fat is down to genetics, it is down to stuffing their faces with a crap diet and too much food.

:rolleyes: :) Eat just one slice of toast with butter a day more than you need to fuel your body and in four years you will be nearly four and a half stone heavier than you are now. People who eat too much do so for many and varied reasons it's not all gluttony, people who are grossly overweight don't want to be overweight, at least I don't know any who are actively trying to be overweight.

I used to smoke over 60 cigarettes a day, now that was addiction gone mad, I stopped cold turkey in 1986 and have never touched one again and that was after 10 years of smoking, I can tell you that even when you are gifted with willpower keeping your weight down when you have a sedentary job is a damn sight harder than quitting smoking.

[grahamw48]

The answer is called exercise.

Burn off more calories than you take in and you'll lose weight.

I am aware of course that there is a TINY minority of fat people who have some sort of rare ailment, but as I indicated in my original post...most just eat too much rubbish food.

A lot of them are on benefits too, and have the cheek to say that they're short of money while living almost exclusively on takeaways...not only eating rubbish, but extortionately priced rubbish, AND smoking AND drinking alcohol.

You won't even find me in a chippy (certainly not for at least the past 15 years), not when I can cook my own for a third of the price.

Sorry, but I've little sympathy for whinging fat lazy people.

[Englishman2010]

The answer is called exercise.

Burn off more calories than you take in and you'll lose weight.

I am aware of course that there is a TINY minority of fat people who have some sort of rare ailment, but as I indicated in my original post...most just eat too much rubbish food.

A lot of them are on benefits too, and have the cheek to say that they're short of money while living almost exclusively on takeaways...not only eating rubbish, but extortionately priced rubbish, AND smoking AND drinking alcohol.

You won't even find me in a chippy (certainly not for at least the past 15 years), not when I can cook my own for a third of the price.

Sorry, but I've little sympathy for whinging fat lazy people.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I don't own a deep fat fryer and can't remember the last time I fried any kind of food. Every week when I'm at the checkout queue in the supermarket I have a nose at the fat person in front of me's trolley. In nearly every case it is full of crap, and stodge mainly based around processed white sugar, white flour and saturated fat, it's very rare there's ever any fresh fruit and vegetables except for a bag of spuds:rolleyes:
You can't even call the crap most people eat convenience food, it takes just as long to prepare a meal based around convenience food as it does to prepare a meal with fresh meat or fish and vegetables/salad and I don't think it costs any more to be healthy either

[Steve.r]

Funny how there are several quite predjudicial feelings against fat people. I am 5'9" and 11.75stones I think I am fat and need to lose weight. Not all of us are the same, and not everyone fits into some quite blinkered views.

[KeithD]

I think Fat here is defined 20 stone+

[Steve.r]

I think fat is any weight that people feel uncomfortable carrying. Anyway, its off topic really.

It would be nice for airlines to allow more baggage on longer haul flights, not everyone has the facility to store or leave clothing in Phils. 20KG is really a small amount to pack and is not really alot of clothing.

[Englishman2010]

Funny how there are several quite predjudicial feelings against fat people. I am 5'9" and 11.75stones I think I am fat and need to lose weight. Not all of us are the same, and not everyone fits into some quite blinkered views.

Not really Steve, I don't have anything against fat people, back to my original point, I just feel that people above a certain weight should have to sacrifice their baggage allowance so that everyone is adding roughly the same weight to an aircraft.....and pointing out that those people who say they want to lose weight should look at what they eat....none of us are perfect, I'm a smoker and keep saying I want to quit but haven't yet.
It's acceptable to be critical of smokers and to complain about smokers costing the NHS a fortune (despite the £5Bn + a yr they add to HMRC coffers), but not to be critical of those who pile crap down their necks all day long and cost the NHS a fortune in later life when they suffer from heart disease and other diseases which may have been prevented or delayed if they had eaten sensibly ;)

[Steve.r]

I am not disagreeing with what you say about evening it all up. But unfortunately it seems society has to rely on processed foods more and more in our 'fast' lives, I guess we are lucky that we can choose to eat wisely. Years ago, it was a sign of wealth to be fat, how times change!
I quite look forward to going to phils to eat fresh food each day. :)

[Englishman2010]

. Years ago, it was a sign of wealth to be fat, how times change!
I quite look forward to going to phils to eat fresh food each day. :)

Very true, and i think it still is in many parts of the developing world, I'm sure most of us are nagged by our Filipina's to put on some weight:icon_lol: Despite the tempation of the Fat Bee chain and a high sugar diet in the Phil's, I find I usually lose a few pounds when I visit as the heat and humidity lessens my appetite....either that or the Red Horse makes me forget to eat :icon_lol:

[grahamw48]

In the interests of keeping this topic lightweight...I have nothing to add. :Cuckoo:

[JimOttley]

I am not disagreeing with what you say about evening it all up. But unfortunately it seems society has to rely on processed foods more and more in our 'fast' lives, I guess we are lucky that we can choose to eat wisely. Years ago, it was a sign of wealth to be fat, how times change!
I quite look forward to going to phils to eat fresh food each day. :)

Interestingly Steve it's still a sign of wealth to be fat in the Phils, that is something that makes me quite sad.

The fat content in the diet of the average 'skinny' poor Filipino family is much higher than that of many of fat westerners but there is a reason for that which is simply cheap access to energy, at 9 calories a gram it's better value for money for most folks, indeed I cringe when I see all the chicharon and the likes over there.

When I am in the Phils I always lose a lot of weight, I find the heat suppresses my appetite apart from anything else.

[JimOttley]

The answer is called exercise.

Burn off more calories than you take in and you'll lose weight.

Yes of course and the converse of my earlier point is eat one slice of buttered toast a day less than you need for 4 years and you will lose 4 stone. Alternatively add a couple of hundred calories of exercise a day and you will do the same.

I used to cycle to work in Glasgow a 16 mile a day round trip, I did that for over a year in all kinds of weather and by god I was fit and thin back then, that was before I started working in IT, a job where for many many years I was working 60 to 70 hours a week sitting in front of a monitor. In that situation you still have the cyclists appetite even though you have the computer programmers calorie budget :)

[fred]

The fat content in the diet of the average 'skinny' poor Filipino family is much higher than that of many of fat westerners but there is a reason for that which is simply cheap access to energy, at 9 calories a gram it's better value for money for most folks, indeed I cringe when I see all the chicharon and the likes over there.

I have to disagree with this statement to some degree.. If a family is poor then chicharon is a luxury they cannot afford..
The poor families here usually survive by eating things like cheap fish or 2 pesos worth of bagoong with plain rice and local veg like green papaya,malongay leaves etc..The thing that makes them fat is the rice they eat three times a day..Veg like Malungay is stuffed with vitimin C.. More Vit C in a tablespoon full then there is in 8 oranges or so..
The kids round here are also forever snacking on my Guava trees like it was their God given right!! Actually I let them pick as many as they like..
The middle class here all seem to head for Jollibee and Mcdo`s as you probably know.

[JimOttley]

I have to disagree with this statement to some degree.. If a family is poor then chicharon is a luxury they cannot afford..
The poor families here usually survive by eating things like cheap fish or 2 pesos worth of bagoong with plain rice and local veg like green papaya,malongay leaves etc..The thing that makes them fat is the rice they eat three times a day..Veg like Malungay is stuffed with vitimin C.. More Vit C in a tablespoon full then there is in 8 oranges or so..
The kids round here are also forever snacking on my Guava trees like it was their God given right!! Actually I let them pick as many as they like..
The middle class here all seem to head for Jollibee and Mcdo`s as you probably know.

I take your point Fred, I should not have implied Chicharon was a staple and yeah the 'Jollibee and Mcdo`s' thing is an expression of wealth for the middle class, I prefer the food at Chow King if I have to eat fast food, rice dishes and the likes, but Ana likes to take the kids to Jollibee :(

I am not a fan of burgers anywhere these days, although when my daughter was little back in the late 80's and early 90's we often went to Burger King until around the age of 8 she decided that eating meat was something she did not want to do :)

I'm probably also a bit off the beam in what I am defining as 'poor' in that post, two family's in my extended family are extremely poor and their diet is closer to what you describe.

My point which I made badly was that many of the family's I have met appear to have a fat intake around 1/3 of their diet, in the west many of us fatties have a much lower fat intake than that but yet we still inflate (sugar's as you say) many don't over there because they burn what they eat i.e. they need all the calories in the diet.

As a kid in Scotland I was encouraged to eat the fat on a bit of meat be it a pork chops or a bit of beef, I find it's similar over there but like us in the 60's they (mostly) don't get as fat as modern westerners and in my view it's a combination of them being more active and eating less processed food but I think the overriding factor is simply being more active.

[fred]

Yeah Jim..I eat in Chow king a lot too...Normally a bowl of beef noodles with them dumplings thrown in does me..
Kids hate going to the mall with me as I always walk them right past KFC and the burger joints..
I eat surprisingly little and really healthily but Im still a couple of stone over weight..Its too hot to Jog and everywhere I walk there is someone offering me a shot of Rum along the way..What can you do?
I`ll wait till next January and buy myself an exercise bike to put in the bedroom..Wack the A/C on full blast and I`ll be away!!! (At least until February!)

[JimOttley]

Its too hot to Jog and everywhere I walk there is someone offering me a shot of Rum along the way..What can you do?

:D


Kids hate going to the mall with me as I always walk them right past KFC and the burger joints..

I might be the man of the house but that does not give me a lot of say in food related matters, you are clearly a more determined man than me :icon_lol:

[fred]

As a kid in Scotland I was encouraged to eat the fat on a bit of meat be it a pork chops or a bit of beef, I find it's similar over there but like us in the 60's they (mostly) don't get as fat as modern westerners and in my view it's a combination of them being more active and eating less processed food but I think the overriding factor is simply being more active.

Just a thought..As a kid I remember my nan in London giving us bread and dripping from yesterdays roast and all kinds of fatty substances throughout the week.. That kind of thing is frowned upon today of course but Im sure there were no where near the amount of grossly fat people around back then..Probably all the greens they forced us to eat with it to even things out a bit??

[Englishman2010]

It's interesting what you gents are saying about fat in a diet. Followers of low carb diets will know that sugar is far more harmful than fat. Food that converts in to sugar in your body (processed carbs, like whole grains and refined sugar) are stored as fat if the they energy they produce isn't burned off, whereas fat is usually passed straight through the body. I eat a fairly high protein and high fat diet - meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, olives, olive oil along with vegetables/salad and berries/fruit which are high in fibre and low in natural sugar, but am healthier now than I was 10 years ago when I ate a diet of processed junk.
However, 15 minutes exercise every day is all it would take most people to lose their excess baggage.

[grahamw48]

Just a thought..As a kid I remember my nan in London giving us bread and dripping from yesterdays roast and all kinds of fatty substances throughout the week.. That kind of thing is frowned upon today of course but Im sure there were no where near the amount of grossly fat people around back then..Probably all the greens they forced us to eat with it to even things out a bit??

Also consider how much both children and adults exercised in those days of fewer cars and labour-saving devices.
We also needed to burn a lot more calories to keep warm, whether we were out and about, or sitting in our non-centrally heated houses.

My Filipino relatives in the province do much more physical work than people here , and don't have access to fast-food outlets YET.

Their diet of rice, fish, chicken, fresh fruit and vegetables is pretty healthy too.
The kids eat far too many sugary snacks and drinks though IMO, and that often means they have bad teeth at a very early age.

[Englishman2010]

I didn't realise until now that "suitcase weight" had changed to "body weight" and a discussion about diet, but while health topics are discussed under most main forum categories I just can't find and read them all :NoNo:

Since when did any thread ever stay on topic :icon_lol: It is sort of connected to the initial topic as overall weight of the passenger and baggage should be linked;)

[KeithD]

I wear all my clothes and take a case full of helium with me :crazy: