CavortingCheetah - for your information, Geneva (Cointrin) Airport is in Swiss territory (the one "Swiss" airport that happens to stretch over the border is Basel/Bāle-Mulhouse (hence called Euroairport).
As for weight discrepancies, I know that in my handling company (NOT Servisair but a competitor), we have close to zero tolerance. Some PAX are let through check-in with a "refer to dispatcher" tag on their checked-in luggage, and if they still refuse to pay extra at the boarding gate, then it's fairly easy for me to offload them AND their baggage and amend the loadsheet accordingly. Personnaly, I have zero tolerance in that respect - I don't work for PAX services, so I don't have to answer to the PAX themselves, only to the client airline.
Also, it depends on each airline's specific procedures whether or not the baggage weight of two PAX can be combined. In other words, some will yield to argumentative PAX, some will not.
Mass & Balance and performance rules are not flexible; neither am I when it comes to that!
Cheers
