Wine Flies Free - award ticket via AA
Jan 31, 2023, 6:58 am
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: IHG AMB/Spire, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold
Posts: 204
I have travelled with bottles before and, if your wine is expensive, I would not trust a standard cardboard box with some inserts. If they are really nice bottles you will likely be better off having them ship it (consumers cannot ship alcohol with USP. Fedex etc technically since if you declare it they wont take it and if you dont declare you cannot insure). They make shipping containers for wine/bottles but they add to your cost.
If the bottles are cheaper then a study doubled box with inserts will work just fine.
Also $100 a case for shipping is pretty high so I assume these are some nice bottles :-)
If the bottles are cheaper then a study doubled box with inserts will work just fine.
Also $100 a case for shipping is pretty high so I assume these are some nice bottles :-)
I went online and a 18 x 13 x 15 cardboard box that is 50lbs will cost $122 to ship from CA to NJ.
https://www.fedex.com/en-us/online/rating.html
https://www.amazon.com/U-Haul-Shipping-Bottles-Styrofoam-Inserts/dp/B07PT6XJBZ/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?keywords=wine%2Bboxes%2Bfor%2Bship ping&qid=1675173195&sr=8-3-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyVk1JQTVSRlF ZNlE1JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTQ2ODEwM1ZZMUxJRlpKMkdaV iZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTg4NTYzUUJCQUxOSTlBN0ZBJnd pZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0J mRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1
18x13x15 and 50 lbs is pretty typical for a case of 12 bottles of wine. They can be $10 bottles or $100 bottles, the size/weight is what it is
Now that $121 is just for regular items, like you said, not wine because technically that is not legal. So if I asked a licensed business to do it for me, I doubt the rate goes down. I am friendly with some wineries who do direct to consumer sales and shipping is killing them now. most eat some of the cost and may only charge ~$5/bottle but they have bulk rate shipping and they are still eating more than 50% of the shipping cost.
I have spoken to a few friends and winemakers who fly AS often enough and have said they have not had issues, AS will put fragile tags on it, etc so as long as is not a "liquor store" cardboard box but a box/inserts meant for shipping via UPS or Fedex with proper inserts (pulp or styro), it will be ok when flying AS. I guess we shall see.
Last edited by eggzlot; Jan 31, 2023 at 7:08 am Reason: added links
Jan 31, 2023, 5:51 pm
#17
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Wherever
Programs: UA 1MM for a while now, AS for a minute, BAEC newly minted Gold
Posts: 1,172
I've been shipping wine as baggage for decades. Probably have transported 40 cases since 2000 with one or two cases per trip from Buenos Aires, Rome, Melbourne, California and even upstate New York. Never had a problem using styrofoam shippers which I obtain as repurposed boxes received through internet purchases and at one point had about a dozen in reserve, rotating them on trips and tossing the ones suffering bumps and bruises after 2-3 trips. AA, UA, LH, OS, JL, TG, SG, QF, NH, DL, AS have all accepted these as baggage and never had a breakage. However, I did experience one empty box getting crushed when traveling to Australia; figured it got run over by a piece of tarmac equipment at BKK enroute to MEL. Also had the pleasure of opening an empty box at destination to find a TSA card; imagined the code red caused by an empty box at TSA baggage screening...oh the horror.
Problem nowadays is many internet wine shipments only use the fiber inserts which I would not trust as airline baggage with precious wine inside. My recent trip to Australia was following a purge of my stock of wine boxes and after calling a few sellers ended up purchasing the U-Haul wine shipper box from Amazon for a reasonable price approx $30. It survived the trip back from Melbourne with 12 bottles of fine wine.
I did have to pay Delta the fee for the 3rd piece of luggage on a short flight from JFK-DCA after my QF MEL-LAX-JFK a few years ago, but that was the only time I was charged having no status on that airline where as *A Gold, AS and premium cabins on OW allow the extra bag at no charge.
Cheers,
-Cyborg
Problem nowadays is many internet wine shipments only use the fiber inserts which I would not trust as airline baggage with precious wine inside. My recent trip to Australia was following a purge of my stock of wine boxes and after calling a few sellers ended up purchasing the U-Haul wine shipper box from Amazon for a reasonable price approx $30. It survived the trip back from Melbourne with 12 bottles of fine wine.
I did have to pay Delta the fee for the 3rd piece of luggage on a short flight from JFK-DCA after my QF MEL-LAX-JFK a few years ago, but that was the only time I was charged having no status on that airline where as *A Gold, AS and premium cabins on OW allow the extra bag at no charge.
Cheers,
-Cyborg
Feb 2, 2023, 4:42 pm
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: IHG AMB/Spire, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold
Posts: 204
I've been shipping wine as baggage for decades. Probably have transported 40 cases since 2000 with one or two cases per trip from Buenos Aires, Rome, Melbourne, California and even upstate New York. Never had a problem using styrofoam shippers which I obtain as repurposed boxes received through internet purchases and at one point had about a dozen in reserve, rotating them on trips and tossing the ones suffering bumps and bruises after 2-3 trips. AA, UA, LH, OS, JL, TG, SG, QF, NH, DL, AS have all accepted these as baggage and never had a breakage. However, I did experience one empty box getting crushed when traveling to Australia; figured it got run over by a piece of tarmac equipment at BKK enroute to MEL. Also had the pleasure of opening an empty box at destination to find a TSA card; imagined the code red caused by an empty box at TSA baggage screening...oh the horror.
Problem nowadays is many internet wine shipments only use the fiber inserts which I would not trust as airline baggage with precious wine inside. My recent trip to Australia was following a purge of my stock of wine boxes and after calling a few sellers ended up purchasing the U-Haul wine shipper box from Amazon for a reasonable price approx $30. It survived the trip back from Melbourne with 12 bottles of fine wine.
I did have to pay Delta the fee for the 3rd piece of luggage on a short flight from JFK-DCA after my QF MEL-LAX-JFK a few years ago, but that was the only time I was charged having no status on that airline where as *A Gold, AS and premium cabins on OW allow the extra bag at no charge.
Cheers,
-Cyborg
Problem nowadays is many internet wine shipments only use the fiber inserts which I would not trust as airline baggage with precious wine inside. My recent trip to Australia was following a purge of my stock of wine boxes and after calling a few sellers ended up purchasing the U-Haul wine shipper box from Amazon for a reasonable price approx $30. It survived the trip back from Melbourne with 12 bottles of fine wine.
I did have to pay Delta the fee for the 3rd piece of luggage on a short flight from JFK-DCA after my QF MEL-LAX-JFK a few years ago, but that was the only time I was charged having no status on that airline where as *A Gold, AS and premium cabins on OW allow the extra bag at no charge.
Cheers,
-Cyborg
Feb 27, 2023, 7:38 am
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2014
Programs: IHG AMB/Spire, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold
Posts: 204
In case anyone in the future finds this thread...My trip is complete.
So when I checked into the first leg of the flight (without wine) I noticed you could change your loyalty club/membership #. Mine was still registered with my AA info, so I left it as to not cause issues on the outbound flight.
On the flight home, when checking in with wine, I changed my AA # to AS and entered my AS # all in the AS App during standard check in. When I got to the baggage check area, the lady was puzzled at first. My wife and I had 2 pieces of luggage, and 5 boxes of wine. So I said between us we should get 4 pieces of luggage and 2 cases of wine, so I only owe you $100 for the 1 wine box that is over the allowed limit. She kept looking at the wine and saying you get 1 wine for free, and she didn't grasp that more wine boxes were our 2nd checked bag. I was nice about it and a manager overheard so came over, hit a few things on the computer, and done and done.
We were able to check 1 standard luggage, 1 wine box as our "second" piece of luggage, then we got 1 wine box for free, per person, on an AA Award booked ticket on AS.
And for the record, I had 3 styro shippers, 2 pulp shippers, and no damaged bottles upon arrival. They put a lot of fragile stickers on the box as well as "baggage luggage" stickers on the box because when they see boxes sometimes they put it in the bulk cargo area.
So when I checked into the first leg of the flight (without wine) I noticed you could change your loyalty club/membership #. Mine was still registered with my AA info, so I left it as to not cause issues on the outbound flight.
On the flight home, when checking in with wine, I changed my AA # to AS and entered my AS # all in the AS App during standard check in. When I got to the baggage check area, the lady was puzzled at first. My wife and I had 2 pieces of luggage, and 5 boxes of wine. So I said between us we should get 4 pieces of luggage and 2 cases of wine, so I only owe you $100 for the 1 wine box that is over the allowed limit. She kept looking at the wine and saying you get 1 wine for free, and she didn't grasp that more wine boxes were our 2nd checked bag. I was nice about it and a manager overheard so came over, hit a few things on the computer, and done and done.
We were able to check 1 standard luggage, 1 wine box as our "second" piece of luggage, then we got 1 wine box for free, per person, on an AA Award booked ticket on AS.
And for the record, I had 3 styro shippers, 2 pulp shippers, and no damaged bottles upon arrival. They put a lot of fragile stickers on the box as well as "baggage luggage" stickers on the box because when they see boxes sometimes they put it in the bulk cargo area.