Originally Posted by
EL AL Rep.
Hi
The reason is that Duty Free items are brought to the gate by the Duty Free personal, there it is given to the passengers for security clearance with accordance to the voucher they received during the check-out process.
The 90 minutes is a predetermined time-frame that ought to be enough for the process to be completed and should not cause any unwanted delays to our flights.
Hope this answer helps to clarify things. If you have additional questions, let me know.
Liat.
Didn't there used to be another process? At one point (probably 6-7 years ago) there was a great price for buying Dom Perignon on board. I was able to call ahead and get them to place a couple bottles on board for me. Then I was able to buy them from the on-board duty free cart. I didn't pay in advance, just "ordered" some more items to be available on-board.
Maybe those days are gone, but it was very convenient.