What are the policies on transporting cigarettes?
 

I apologize beforehand if this is a common sense question or if it has been covered before.

I'm an avid smoker. I know, filthy habit. Blah blah. However I'm not sure if my cigarette is sold in the UK and in November I will be spending a few weeks in Manchester. After a 10+ hour flight with a few connections I'll more than likely need a few once finally arriving there.

I was thinking of buying a carton of them before my trip. But should I even bother? Would they be allowed on carry-on? Would they even be permitted in my checked-in luggage? I know for a fact that there are issues with transporting certain foods and I've heard cigars can cause a little problem. What are the policies with tobacco products?

Oops, thought I was in a different forum. Sorry for the mixup, thanks for the move.

There are a lot of brands in the UK, so we might have yours! However, they are very expensive here nowadays, lots of tax on them, so may want to bring them from the US in any case! I don't know of any reason why you cannot pack cigarettes in hand luggage or hold baggage, even under the latest restrictions. It's never been a problem for me in the past bringing duty free back for friends. You should be OK with HM Revenue and Customs bringing in 200 cigarettes.

Manchester Airport itself does not have many smoking areas really, depending which terminal you arrive in you'll probably have to pop outside to catch up!

You can bring in a carton plus whatever you buy from duty free aboard the plane; depending on how long I'll be, I usually pick up a carton or two on the plane or in the duty-free shop. Never had a problem heading into the UK or anywhere in Europe for that matter. Don't put any in your checked baggage -- they might disappear, but there are no restrictions AFAIK in terms of putting them in checked baggage or in a carry-on. FWIW, they're usually cheaper in duty-free than here in CA.

In most countries, Customs allow 200 cigarettes to be imported duty free.