Wine in checked luggage About This Page:

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Has anyone tried this? We're going during the food and wine festival and I want to bring wine home. Since the stupid airlines implemented their "no liquids" rule (don't get me started, lol), I obviously cannot carry it on the plane. Therefore I'm forced to check it in my luggage.

We decided we're going to buy a hard suitcase, and fill it with bubble wrap, and bring it down, and then on the way home we'll fill it with the wine we buy, bubble wrap the HECK out of it, seal it in giant ziplocs, and check it for the way home.

Anyone have experience with stuff like this? Would love to hear how it went. We only have a 2 hour, non-stop flight, so I feel pretty ok about it... but nonetheless... it's a hassle. Sigh.

[krisk11]

I fly in and out of the Philadelphia airport and if you ever saw how the baggage handlers handle your bags you would never put a bottle of wine in a suitcase. Good luck if you decide to try it.

[Plannergirl]

We buy wine every year when we are at Disney and *knocks on her head* never had one break. Disney has good wrapping stuff, that odd paper beehive sort of stuff works great. We buy a bottle or two, wrap it in that paper stuff Disney has (tell them you are flying when you buy it and they will wrap it up well and possibly put it in a small box) then wrap that in some dirty t-shirts that go inside a big zip lock bag. Pack a layer of stuff in your suit case, put the bottle in and pack more stuff on top.

Heck we brought rum back from our honeymoon in Antigua this way with no problems as well.

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Thanks, plannergirl! I haven't ever checked any bottles of anything in the past... the last time I went on a cruise, I brought back six bottles of rum, but carried them on. Now that that's impossible... lol... I was sort of freaking out at the thought of going to the Food and Wine festival and NOT bringing back WINE! LOL! I guess worst case a bottle breaks. But if it's in one of those hard suitcases, with plenty of good wrapping, I would guess it would be fine.

*knock on wood*

LOL! Guess I'll have to let you all know how it goes!

[jenifermg0]

I've brought alcohol back from Mexico and from Hawaii in SOFT sided suitcases and never had one break. Maybe I've just been very very lucky, but I have just padded the daylights out of them and everything has made it home in one piece. If you use the hard suitcase and pack them appropriately, I would bet the wine would make it home just fine.

[Plannergirl]

You are most welcome! Our luggage is all soft side stuff, some of it good sampsonite and some of it not so good, never had a problem. You do realize you can ship stuff home to right?

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Absolutely but the last time we were at EPCOT we were told by the CM that they couldn't ship wine. There are a bunch of various state laws that prevent it, at least in TN. Stupidest thing ever.

[snoozin]

We pack wine every trip on our way down, and usually pick up more while we're there. We do use extra-large ziploc bags to prevent spills should the cork or bottle break...

[Dave Marx]

The airlines are not responsible for the restrictions on carry-on liquids. That's the TSA. If you buy the liquids inside the "sterile area," you can bring them on the plane (but you can't buy carry-out liquor in the sterile area, so that freedom is really restricted to soft drinks).

The airlines do have restrictions on consumption of "outside" alcoholic beverages on the plane, and those are backed-up by federal regulations. When the flight crew cannot control the consumption of alcohol (by refusing to sell more than a given amount to any one passenger), then they run the real risk of having an incident on board (just as bars often do). It's one thing to call the cops to quell a disturbance when you're located on Main St. It's another thing entirely when the disturbance takes place at 35,000 feet, in a pressurized cabin. (That's also why airline personnel can refuse boarding to obviously drunk/disorderly persons.)

Meanwhile, the TSA has a reasonable point in restricting liquids through the security checkpoint - flammable liquids can be used as a weapon on board a plane. So, for that matter, can broken glass bottles. While I've never been able to ignite a glass of red wine (at 12% alcohol), it's unreasonable to expect security guards to make a bottle-by-bottle determination of safety. It's certainly irresponsible to trust the label as proof of the safety of the contents, since the bad guys will certainly pour 90% alcohol into bottles labeled "spring water."

[ilovedisney247]

I literally tossed a half a bottle of rum into my regular suitcase with my dirty clothes on the way back from my last trip and it made it home no problem!

[chezp]

We've done it lots of times and had no problem. We pack the bottle in our dirty laundry and wrap as much clothing around it as we can to cushion it. Then we put it all in a zip-loc bag, so if it does break, it will only go all over the clothes in there - that are dirty anyway - and not over the whole case. We then try and put it towards the middle of the case. As I say, we've (touch wood! ) not had a problem doing it that way on all our international trips.

[Dave Marx]

If I'm carrying a bottle in checked luggage, I like to have it inside a sturdy box when at all possible. Bubble wrap, extra clothing, etc. are fine up to a point (and I use those too, in addition to the box), but I worry about the bottle shifting around during baggage handling, and/or the wrappings coming loose. At least with a sturdy carton, the bottle is always securely enclosed.

I'm also wary about depending on a zip-lock around bubble wrap. If the bottle does happen to break anyway, the broken glass can easily slice through both bubble wrap and plastic bag. Wrapping the bottle in currogated cardboard or about 20 thicknesses of newspaper (an entire section or newspaper) before bubble wrapping and bagging adds a bit of puncture-resistence to the mix.

[Sue M.]

I've flown with bottles of wine (or Vodka) before. I put it in a zip lock, wrap it in towels, and stick it in the middle of my (soft sided) suitcase in-between the layers of clothing. Guess I've been lucky, nothing has happened. Good luck to you.

[Mares75]

I guess I'm the only one with bad luck. Ex-DH packed a bottle of rum and the neck broke in the suitcase so the top portion came right off. That thing was wrapped well too. Everything in that suitcase reeked of rum. So did the suitcase itself. It was kind of embarassing standing by a suitcase that pretty much had fumes of alcohol coming off of it. I've never had the nerve to try it again.

[bsblady01]

take a big ziploc bag wrap the bottle in beach towl and put the bottle in the bag and then wrap the bag with dirty clothing and the bottle should not brake on the way home.