Checked baggage liquid limit
 

Flying domestically soon, wanting to check in 6 bottles of wine in my suitcase. About 4.5 liters.

Transport Canada says there's no limit in how many alcoholic beverages you check domestically if under 24% alcohol.

Air Canada's site says there is a checked baggage limit of 2 liters of fluids...

• Liquids, gels and aerosols (e.g. hairspray, medicines containing alcohol, perfume, and cologne) are accepted in checked baggage provided:
• Their total capacity doesn’t exceed 2 L or 2 kg (75 fl. oz.) per passenger.

Does this mean each passenger is limited to only 2 bottles of wine total in all their luggage? At 750 ml per bottle, even 3 bottles of wine would exceed the limit. Is this enforced, and will they actually remove wine from my bags?

I have check in 20L of water in my bag many times. A 40 case of water is just under 50 LBS. and the water is only $3 at costco saving alot of money in water fees when traveling. also when you do not trust the water in the USA this is a good trick to use.

I've sent a case of 12 bottles of wine fully padded on AC as one of my checked bags. They didn't care, they just cared that every bottle was properly protected.

Can someone start a thread "Flying AC with Wine in Luggage - Rules & Regs"? :D

As a SE100K you should be able to check 70 lbs!

My experience is the same as jazzsax 's. They just don't want the bottles to break.

Various wine and shipping stores (e.g. UPS Store) sell boxes designed for shipping wine. Some are fancy, others are just cardboard boxes with styrofoam inserts. The latter are usually not very expensive.

I would do 70 lbs of water but they do not sell packs that big. I do fill my suitcase to make it 70 lbs with 50 lbs of water.

Just pad the s**t out of them please! Last summer returning from FRA, some joker had packed 2 bottles of some foul smelling schnapps, both had broken and seeped for 10 hours into my bag. Bag and contents were destroyed..... :(

Roger that, I may even reconsider taking them now, didn't realize they were so prone to breaking in luggage.

If you package them well, it shouldn't be an issue. The styrofoam-insert carboard box thing I was talking about should probably cost you like $10. See here. If it's worth the hassle of transporting the bottles, it's surely worth ~$2/bottle to protect them :)

Even if you don't do that, if you wrap them well with towels, T-shirts, things like that, it should be fine. As long as your suitcase isn't just the six bottles of wine, that is. But if there's some other stuff in there, it should be okay. I used to take a few bottles of wine back to university every time I came home for Christmas, summer, etc, and never had a problem with that. Although a few of those times were before the ridiculous liquid limits, so I probably took a bottle or two in my carry-on. But definitely would have checked at least a couple bottles each trip.

So you filed a luggage damage claim with the airline presumably?

Whenever I bring bottles I drop the bottle into two socks then put it in a giant Ziploc bag. So if the bottle breaks the socks should stop the glass cutting the bag.

In theory, I could still pour the booze back into another bottle but that seems unpleasant

Maybe you should put the bottle in the bag, then the bag inside the sock? ;)

My main experience is usually with Napa. It's hard not to go to Napa and hit 6-8 wineries and not come back with at least a dozen bottles per person.

usually my process is go to the wineries, find what I like, and add on the bubble wrap sealed bags for the bottles. Then get the shipping box from the UPS store in downtown Napa (yes there is one, with really good hours) that is specifically designed to fit the bottles with extra padding. They will happily tape the box for you once done since you're buying the box from them.

Ship it as one of your bags on the flight home.

Customs has NEVER charged me ever for being over. They've asked the purpose of the trip, and usually napa has been some sort of celebration. They've asked how many bottles --- I tell them 12 (per person). They ask "how many different wineries"... I tell them honestly.... then they wave me through.

None of them want to go through every bottle to try figure out the small amount of duty on being over limit (since the duties are based on alcohol content)... and they appreciate us being honest.

Usual cost at the wineries for the bubble packs are $2-3 per bottle. $10-15 for the box at UPS in downtown Napa. Considering most of the bottles I buy in Napa are 35-40% of the price they are in Canada, I'm still ending up way more ahead....

And as another note --- I've also shipped bottles in my checked baggage and done the same thing. I've never had a bottle break as long as it was properly wrapped. You can never go wrong with the bubble wrap wine bottle enclosures. You can grab them everywhere now. Take them with you ahead of time, and they are sealed. Even if the bottle breaks you'd stil have to puncture the wrap to spill into your suitcase.

I actually had more grief from AC bringing back 60 pounds of frozen chicken breast from my butcher in North York.... best breasts you can ever get. He would vacuum seal them in 2 pound bags, and I would send my assistant to pick them up in a big suitcase. The looks on the oversize scanners faces were unreal when they were like .... "... this dude is shipping 60 pounds of chicken?"

Yes when it's farm fresh, hutterite, $5 a pound breast that tastes sweater than Pamela Anderson in her prime.... yup!