Long ago, we managed to accumulate 4-5 wine shippers from the Napa/Sonoma area. The UPS Store there sold them for around $10 each. We'd load up our cases and bring them home as checked bags, no problem.

Then about 5 years ago, I was out there and the UPS Store stopped carrying them. The guy there sold that airline baggage fees killed 90% of the demand for them. They're still out there though... For our last wine trip, we checked several empty ones on our outbound, which generated a funny look from the counter agent.

All of my experiences with them have been on domestic U.S. flights. No idea of the wine shippers would be problematic internationally...either with the airline or customs.

The wine has always arrived home safely. The fancy cases look great, but are probably overkill unless you're buying a lot of extremely expensive wine.