air new zealand is pretty strict, i got stuck with a pretty decent tab after having a bit of extra poundage in a duffle.

people dont understand all the issues surrounding carry-on baggage. One of the major reasons behind the weight limitation is the burst capacity of the doors on the luggage compartments. I was on aflight from melbourne to canberra once and we got major turbulance and a couple of items were ejected from the overhead compartments but fortunately no-one got injured. Everything around plane design is about saving weight and fuel so the luggage compartments are designed to accept a modest amount of luggage. The stuff that is brought on board in China never ceases to amaze me.