i have not had any problems checking wine in transferring from syd-hnl-lax-sfo-ord. all on qantas/AA flights. i didnt ahve any problems on United flights on the ord sector. In fact, my bag was never singled out for etd swap. you may encounter that tsa may wish to wipe the bottles and if they not keen to do it due to extra work, they may tell you its not allowed as checked baggage. the only problem is breakages.