Check-in baggage limits/dimensions -- how are they measured?

Factual Questions
1

So my family of four is going overseas in a few days and we will be having a lot of check-in baggage filled with things for our relatives there. Make that eight pieces. When we arrive in the Philippines, we will be taking a domestic flight from Manila to another city within the country.

Info from the Philippine Airlines website, for economy class domestic flight passengers:

Problem is, I’m pretty sure we’re over. Two of the luggages are definitely over 62" and we’re going to be exchanging them tomorrow. As for the smaller ones, they are approximately 62", depending on how you measure. Just as an aside, I think that 107" limit is horrible.

At the airport:

  1. Are they actually going to measure the pieces one by one?

  2. What do they include in the measurement? Are wheels, handles, and excess fat (some of our luggage is quite stuffed) included?

  3. How strict are they about overages? If we’re off by 2 inches, are they going to be tough on us and give us no choice but to pay (or worse, open up the luggage), or will a little pleading with them work? How do weight overages differ?

By the way, I have called the airline long distance, and for some reason unknown to me, we can’t hear half of what each side is saying. Bad lines or something.

2

It’s probably up to the individual baggage checker to be strict or lax, unless the airline itself stresses strict adherence to the rules. I’d hope that they’d let a few inches/cm slide. But to answer your question #1, last time I flew, they had a box which had signs near it saying that all luggage must be able to fit inside. You could test your luggage before you checked it in.

But by all means, keep trying to get the airline’s official reply. Do they have a website?