Any experiences with Emirates carry on regs? In weighing carry on bag (which is well within the size measurements given) it is nearly impossible to stay under 15 lbs. since it's best to carry cameras and binocs in one's carry on bag. Do they actually weigh them??
15 lbs is pretty stringent- travel to Hawaii gives you 25 lbs. Thanks for any input.

Consider yourself lucky.

Air Botswana officially limits carry on bags to 5kg!!!!

Whew! An EMPTY bag weighs that!

I flew Emirates from Seattle to Dubai and on to Harare in May. In Seattle they weighed every piece of cabin baggage. People with cabin baggage in excess of 15 pounds were required to remove items. I got lucky. They focused on my guns and ammo and never weighed mt carry on.

Wear a jacket and cargo pants with big pockets and stuff them full of your stuff until your bag weighs less than 15 Lbs. After getting the bag weighed, empty your pockets.

I have never seen Emirates weigh hand luggage.

quote:

I have never seen Emirates weigh hand luggage.

They do in Houston!

Bad stuff happening.....cannot fly Emirates,the gun permits are not going through in time although we started this process long ago. Gracy is upset with Emirates but.... We're probably have to reschedule with SAA...this is 8 hours before we are supposed to take off.

TERRIBLE NEWS! I hope this gets resolved before you depart. Please keep us updated, if at all possible. Many more hunters are beginning to use Emirates, so this is of major importance. We are booked on Emirates in September. I have heard in the past that gun permits from Emirates must be processed at least two weeks in advance of departure.

Best of luck.

quote:

Originally posted by LionHunter:
TERRIBLE NEWS! I hope this gets resolved before you depart. Please keep us updated, if at all possible. Many more hunters are beginning to use Emirates, so this is of major importance. We are booked on Emirates in September. I have heard in the past that gun permits from Emirates must be processed at least two weeks in advance of departure.

Best of luck.

I always try to get our permits at least 3 weeks ahead of time, and I am here in Dubai.

I learned this the hard way traveling to India where they are so bureaucratic! I had to leave behind stuff at the airport, throw them in the bin etc.

Now I take out my jacket & jersey even if it is 40 degrees Celsius. I carry my camera on my belt. I put all books in the jacket pockets. Book are real killers for weight. I manage to carry the extra 10 kg as part of what I ware!!

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
Wear a jacket and cargo pants with big pockets and stuff them full of your stuff until your bag weighs less than 15 Lbs. After getting the bag weighed, empty your pockets.

i solved the book weight dilemma with a Kindle. i just down load 4-5 books prior to leaving and save 3-4 lbs. cameras go in my cargo pants pockets( video in 1, still camera in the other).

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
I learned this the hard way traveling to India where they are so bureaucratic! I had to leave behind stuff at the airport, throw them in the bin etc.

Now I take out my jacket & jersey even if it is 40 degrees Celsius. I carry my camera on my belt. I put all books in the jacket pockets. Book are real killers for weight. I manage to carry the extra 10 kg as part of what I ware!!

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
Wear a jacket and cargo pants with big pockets and stuff them full of your stuff until your bag weighs less than 15 Lbs. After getting the bag weighed, empty your pockets.

Naki, Get an E-reader, I have dozens of books with me when I fly and they weigh less than half a kilo.

quote:

Originally posted by LionHunter:
TERRIBLE NEWS! I hope this gets resolved before you depart. Please keep us updated, if at all possible. Many more hunters are beginning to use Emirates, so this is of major importance. We are booked on Emirates in September. I have heard in the past that gun permits from Emirates must be processed at least two weeks in advance of departure.

Best of luck.

It was me who recommended Emirates I am afraid to say. That will be the last time.

I fly Emirates every few months- I have never had a carry on weighed.

I flew with guns a month back and had the same problems. I did it all myself, instead of using a service, and it was an absolute nightmare. I started in advance, and between the NY, Dubai and India call centers, no one could do anything. 2 Days before my flight it still wasn't sorted, and they said I couldn't fly with the guns.

First and foremost, when you call, ONLY talk to the Dubai call center. The frustration here is that there is the 800 number you get assigned randomly, and usually you will get the Indian call center. They can't do anything.

Secondly, you have to submit all the docs to the rep, but it goes to Emirates Group Security. CALL EMIRATES GROUP SECURITY- they are the guys that actually made things happen for me. Over the course of the whole process I made, literally, hundreds of calls. When I finally got the number to group security and called them they sorted everything out in 15 minutes.

Never had problems with Emirates.
In fact, I'd say it's one of the best airlines.

It takes a long time to get a rifle permit but the call centre here told me that from the beginning.

Perhaps I should clarify my earlier post.

What I meant was that you should/must have your permits secured a minimum of two weeks prior to departure. Apply early!

In 2012 We flew Emirates for the first time and I did all the bookings myself, as I have for 20+ international hunting trips going back to the early 1990s. However, when it came to the gun permits I ran into a similar situation as that described above - call center hell and different information provided by different Emirates agents (telephone). At about a month out I finally called a TA friend and had her process the gun permits through Emirates for me.

This year we are using Travel With Guns - I have given up on doing it myself out of pure frustration with all airlines.

Now, here's this years Emirates problem: Mileage Upgrades! We have been working on this since December '13. Emirates must have the worst approach to frequent fliers I have ever dealt with. It's 150,000 miles to upgrade from a FlexFare coach (not the cheapest fare) ticket to Business Class - SFO-DXB-HRE/return. Nobody at Emirates can handle this for us as Emirates only "frees" BC upgrades close to departure dates - real close! So now we have found that we will have to upgrade individual legs and I just confirmed the DXB-HRE leg for 30K miles and still waiting for the other three legs to come available. Emirates has no mechanism to notify you of the BC upgrade openings, thus you or your TA must check online daily. This really sucks and Emirates is NOT demonstrating any interest in quality customer relations.

Emirates provides great service and food on late model aircraft with great looking flight attendants and they allow you to avoid JNB completely, but their people in the call centers really can't handle serious questions and their upgrade policy is the worst. Somebody at Emirates should start paying attention!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I have never seen Emirates weigh hand luggage.

With respect Saeed, I sense you probably sit at the other end of the plane to those experiencing difficulties ! Expect this policy to grow as margins become even finer. Excess luggage policies are typically nice earners and then there's the "safety" aspect - apparently.

quote:

Originally posted by Ridgeman:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I have never seen Emirates weigh hand luggage.

With respect Saeed, I sense you probably sit at the other end of the plane to those experiencing difficulties ! Expect this policy to grow as margins become even finer. Excess luggage policies are typically nice earners and then there's the "safety" aspect - apparently.

True that I normally travel either First or Business Class.

But, I have had problems with hand luggage with other airlines.

One of the silliest I encountered was Qatar Airlines.

I checked in, and went into the airport without any hassle.

After getting through the boarding gate, and was on the umbilical that leads straight to the aircraft, there was a lady checking the weight of hand luggage????

I told her in no uncertain terms that whoever decided to do this in this particular location was an utter imbecile1

Or may be Qatar has started employing 10 year old kids for bosses!

She was very apologetic and let me pass.

quote:

Originally posted by StormsGSP:
I fly Emirates every few months- I have never had a carry on weighed.

I flew with guns a month back and had the same problems. I did it all myself, instead of using a service, and it was an absolute nightmare. I started in advance, and between the NY, Dubai and India call centers, no one could do anything. 2 Days before my flight it still wasn't sorted, and they said I couldn't fly with the guns.

First and foremost, when you call, ONLY talk to the Dubai call center. The frustration here is that there is the 800 number you get assigned randomly, and usually you will get the Indian call center. They can't do anything.

Secondly, you have to submit all the docs to the rep, but it goes to Emirates Group Security. CALL EMIRATES GROUP SECURITY- they are the guys that actually made things happen for me. Over the course of the whole process I made, literally, hundreds of calls. When I finally got the number to group security and called them they sorted everything out in 15 minutes.

Do you happen to have the number for Emirates Group Security? If not who did you get it from?

Cheers
Joyce

quote:

Originally posted by little miss:

quote:

Originally posted by StormsGSP:
I fly Emirates every few months- I have never had a carry on weighed.

I flew with guns a month back and had the same problems. I did it all myself, instead of using a service, and it was an absolute nightmare. I started in advance, and between the NY, Dubai and India call centers, no one could do anything. 2 Days before my flight it still wasn't sorted, and they said I couldn't fly with the guns.

First and foremost, when you call, ONLY talk to the Dubai call center. The frustration here is that there is the 800 number you get assigned randomly, and usually you will get the Indian call center. They can't do anything.

Secondly, you have to submit all the docs to the rep, but it goes to Emirates Group Security. CALL EMIRATES GROUP SECURITY- they are the guys that actually made things happen for me. Over the course of the whole process I made, literally, hundreds of calls. When I finally got the number to group security and called them they sorted everything out in 15 minutes.

Do you happen to have the number for Emirates Group Security? If not who did you get it from?

Cheers
Joyce

Sure, their number is: + 971 4 218 3222

Use Travel with guns my second trip with emirates no problems with gun permit came 10 days early have copies in my hand. have not had carry on weighed on first trip

quote:

Originally posted by shotgun46:
Use Travel with guns my second trip with emirates no problems with gun permit came 10 days early have copies in my hand. have not had carry on weighed on first trip

I emailed Steve and he was not comfortable with the fact we plan a stopover in Dubai. We will handle it ourselves.

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
Wear a jacket and cargo pants with big pockets and stuff them full of your stuff until your bag weighs less than 15 Lbs. After getting the bag weighed, empty your pockets.

I wear one of these: http://www.scottevest.com/v3_s.../subindex_mens.shtml.

It's amazing what you can stuff in them.

+1

Just returned LAX-Dubai-Harare. Hand luggage was weighed at each outbound point. Good advice above to stuff your pockets, then readjust when on board.

Well, no hand luggage was weighed but the nightmare with gun permits has made the decision to never fly Emirates again. Gracy Travel worked overtime and on holiday to sort things out-kudos to them!! We obtained a letter stating the gun permit had been issued after the first week into our safari and carried a copy of it ( thanks Andrew) when departing but things still were off. From the airport in Lusaka, we had to fax the letter to Dubai; we were told to wait and not board. Much anxiety. Again, help arrived I the form of a proactive PH and we were off. In Dubai, things seemed ok until boarding the flight going to Boston. We were pulled aside,boarding passes taken by an officer. Much more anxiety but the officer returned and we were allowed to proceed. Worried that the guns wouldn't make it, we were relieved to meet up with the familiar case in Boston. In Boston,the staff at Jet Blue seemed very unfamiliar with processing guns. All around, not a smooth time.