Hong Kong or Singapore

This does not bode well for me for any shopping the wife does then!! Interesting point though Andrew, I'm always really nevous about baggage weight and get annoyed with people that abuse / get away with it especailly with hand lugguage. In Dubai coming home from work they actually make the announcement about 1 peice of luguage and no more the 7kg at the gate as they are letting people through with 3-4 bags blatently over 7kg! Gets my goat!!

This is such a pet peeve of mine especially when I am traveling from the Middle East back to Manila. Sorry to all the kabayans but they really abuse this laxness and is such a disgrace to the country. I would sometimes end up arguing with someone over the overhead space since they have one too many bags and mine would end up rows away from my seat. Even the simple instruction of which rows to board first is ignored and I have experience one too many times that gate officials get mad and start shouting.

I've not seen that but I'm sure I'm the only one on the entire plane who actually has cabin luggage at the specified size requirements

Speaking of which our luggage is already packed for our journey in April. The bags are full and yet I haven't even got a pair of shorts nor t-shirt in my luggage! I'm hoping the wife is going to allow me to put some clothes in the cabin luggage.

Dubai to Manila or Clark is a very different matter as that is a long haul flight and the aircraft must depart carrying a lot more fuel.

Trouble is I see this traveling both ways in and out of Dubai as well to Jo'berg and Manila. The only place I got pulled about hand luggage was in Birmingham. Everywhere else no one seems to care and that includes check in staff, those at the gate and the crew at the airplane door. There must be slack in the system wieght wise because everyone weighs a different amount don't they. I mean I'm 6'4 and 16 stone so i'm going weigh a damn sight more than a 5'5 filipna (well I hope I would!). Maybe thats why they're not to bothered about enforcing the hand carry limits in asian countries? Just a thought.

Agreed, I'd think wind has more of an affect than a few kilos here or there in hand luggage. I just wish it was a constant though. Emirates seem to be fairly blaise about it all outside of the UK. My wife got picked up for having a small handbag and a carryon bag. Was told only one bag per person. We get on the plane and all we see is people with 60l rucksacks, a grip and a couple of carrier bags. Why did my wife get singled out and what seems like half the plane didn't? that was KLM and a few years ago now though. If the airline has a weight policy then it should be enforced across the board. This is obviously a personal thing and not alot to do with if the plane is going to make it because someone sneaked a extra bag into the cabin.

I recently travelled on a Etihad flight from Manila to Abu Dhabi and the Filipinos were getting their oversized baggage taken off them just before boarding the plane, quite refreshing I thought as Filipinos and Africans especially go way over the top with luggage. As was mentioned before, strict enforcement of the baggage policy should be adhered to without any exceptions.

I have paid over £30 a kilo for overweight baggage before now when taking equipment for my work and I think if all the airlines did the same it would reduce this problem. Like Blue Acid, it pisses me right off when there isn't even room for my laptop bag in the overhead compartment and you have to go walkabout to find a place to put a small bag.

I would like to travel business class all the time then I wouldn't have this problem but its not worth the money unless the company is paying or you have money to throw away.

I like the bit about the TV, who in there right mind would do that eh, I hope it didn't work when they got it home. I flew a couple of times with KLM from Manchester, I could never get a connection in Amsterdam that suited me as in I usually had to wait a few hours for the connection. I always fly with either Emirates or Etihad and only have a short stopover in the UAE. When I use Etihad they usually email me when Im in the Phils and ask if I want to upgrade to business class for the return trip. They ask you what you want to pay so obviously I slid the sliding payment scale to the cheapest I would pay £200 and I had a return flight in business class. I will look into KLM flights again though I'm hoping to start the fiancée visa trek at the end of April.

The price of air tickets is still reasonable although very pricy at Easter and Christmas.

Good point about the radio clock, I took one to the missus when she was living in Dubai and it didn't work properly. I know when I've upgraded to business class I received no miles at all for that leg of the journey, glad KLM gave you the miles, little mistake by them I would guess. Like you say, its just too much to pay for business class on a regular basis, it really is not good value for money at all. You only have to think what you can buy with the price difference, like 4 more trip to the Philippines ........ literally

I think generally if you get upgrade you don't the airmiles for that class but your miles for your original ticket. I've paid £180 for an upgrade from skipol to jo'berg, well worth it but I wouldn't pay full price for one with KLM. They are now expensive for the standard you get and other airlines are better and often cheaper.

Must be something to do with the cheap arse tickets we get then. I used Emirates to fly us when we came over to the phils including our sighting holiday in june last year. So 2 return tickets and 2 singles plus my return tickets to Jo'berg for work (totaling 12 separate flights) Work flights are on half airmiles. I've just got my silver card. This will allow be to get quite drunk in the business lounge in Dubai!!

Right after much messing about and the website playing silly buggers booked into "Butterfly on Prat". 6 nights at about £850 with airport pick-up and flights with cathy pacific £374 return for the two of us. Relieved at that not sort out things to do.
Thanks for the hints and tips so far people.

That does look like a good deal - do let us know what the place is like!

Will do. That deal doesn't include breakfast I should say but i've come to the realisation that breakfast in hotels is massively overpriced. As long as there is drinkingh water and we're able to make a cup of tea in the morning we now generally get breakie outside.

Hi all

Got back from hong kong on the 1st after an absolutely brilliant holiday!! I'll give a brief run down on stuff.
Day 1: Arrived midday ish, check in to the hotel. "Butterfly on Prat" - nice hotel, clean (we got a newly renovated room on floor 5). We didn't eat there, the reception is tiny, the room was nice enough though a little small. Cost for 6 nights in delux double was about 900quid though after 10% service charge added!

Spent the rest of the afternoon walking around TST and the "Avenue of the Stars".

Day 2: Victoria Peak in the tram, onto Stanley which is nice and quieter, fairly small. Had lunch at the "Boathouse" very nice. Then after a few beers agreed to go on to the Prada outlet in Ap Lei Chau. All I'll say about this is even after a 35% discount has been applied it still makes your eyes water!!!

Day 3: MTR to the Big Buddha and Po Lin monastery via the cable car at Ngong Ping. Paid for a bus tour which takes you to one of the last remaining fishing villages in hong kong. To be honest I wasn't that impressed with this part. The Buddha and monastery was well worth it. With this and Victoria peak you need to be there before 10am as the queues get very long.

Day 4: Spent the day walking round the street markets (ladies, fish, bird etc) in Mongkok bartering with the stall holders. Actually really enjoyed this.

Day 5: Turned up at the stadium about 10:30am to see what was happening. Got approached by an indian asking HKD2000 for 2 tickets!! buggered him off and then bumped into a hung over brit whoboffered me his 2 tickets for face value of HKD650 each. Result!! Got them and went up to the gate and they worked. So in we went for 8 fantastic hours of rugby 7's resulting in a England - New Zealand final!!

Day 6: Last full day so spent it easy going round a few shopping malls on Kowloon side.

So overall a really great experience for us both and got to do most of the things on my list bar a couple but that was down to heavy rain on the last couple of days.
My tips:
Get an octopus card for travelling on the MTR, taxi's etc, very convenient.
Get to where you want to get to before 11am as the crowds get big to get into places especially at the weekends
Get a street and MTR map, also DK eyewitness guide books are great.
Watch dealers (authorised and 2nd hand) as well as jewellery shops are everywhere. I'm into my watches and loved this, got to try on some watches that I never thought I'd ever get to.
Plan your next day.
Taxis charge by distance and if you avoid rush hour are pretty reasonable.

Cons:
Chinese food is generally horrible! I was really looking forward to eating dim sum etc but after a couple of meals we never ate Chinese again.
Everywhere puts on 10% service charge apart from the irish pubs on Nathan road.
Be prepared to be asked if you want copy watches or a suit made every 20 yards in Kowloon around the TST area. One guy eventually said he knew not to ask me anymore.

That's about all I can remember. Thanks for all the tips etc given. Singapore next.......