djerikd

It's not wine, but somewhat amusing anyways.

I deployed a few years ago to Bahrain with my team of work-hard, play-hard guys. Two us went ahead early and the rest of the team followed a week later. When we got there, we realized that it was nearly impossible to purchase alcohol out in town. On the base it was strictly rationed and sneaking it out of the duty free store in the port was difficult.

After going through our monthly ration in the first couple of nights, panic set in. That is, until I realized that we had guys coming in a week later. So, I called back to the states. They threw four or five 1.75L bottles of vodka, rum, whiskey and scotch into a small suitcase. It was packed full. The bottles were bagged and wrapped in a large comforter and the suitcase was checked as baggage. UA and BA did a great job as the booze suitcase made it halfway around the world in perfect shape with nothing damaged. I don't know what, if anything, was said at checkin. The Bahrain customs didn't ask anything.

Ironically, once we got used to the time-zone differences and got to work, our drinking dropped off significantly. The ration amounts turned out to be sufficient and in fact when we left, we turned over some of those suitcase bottles to our replacements. They polished them off in a single night.

BillScann

I looked everywhere on the Argentina forum and found no such information. can you please provide a link? I checked 2 cases of wine from EZE to the US in early November without any problem.

Camino1

I flew QANTAS from Australia with 4 bottles that were duty-free from in-flight, and they advised us onboard that when we land in the US we would need to place the bottles in checked bags.

When we connected to UAL we were asked if we had wine. Because I live 90 miles from LAX I just rented a car.

lopez151

It's not UA, and it's not SFO, but I've also always had luck checking a case of wine as luggage when using the molded styrofoam inserts. I've usually done this when flying KQ JNB-NBO and the check in agents always put the box aside to be hand-carried to the aircraft instead of being tossed around on the conveyor belt. Does UA do this at SFO? Probably impractical at a large station. JNB has one departure a day on KQ.

sf4dfish

When I checked in my case of wine, at SFO, the UA agent placed it on the conveyor belt.

1P

No problems ever with checking wine - hundreds of bottles transatlantic over the years.

I don't go for the wrapped-in-clothes thing, though - much too dangerous, especially in these days when luggage can be inspected. Bubble wrap and mailing tape (buy them at Target or somewhere similar) is the only safe (and still inexpensive) way to go; and it also has the advantage of deterring nosy TSA operatives who can't, as someone has already pointed out in this thread, tell what the bottle contains if you use the bubble wrap correctly.

And don't ever ask for fragile stickers on your bags - only draws attention to the fact that you've got something they'd like to have a try breaking. ;(

Gaucho100K

Thanks for BillScan for pointing out this thread to me:

Some UA employees (along with some of the 3rd party service companies they use to do security screening) are known to enforce/create rules in "creative" ways. From time to time, I hear of arguments that happen between some pax that get questioned about wine in luggage... sometimes it appears that no bottles of wine are allowed, others Ive heard that there is a limit of 3 bottles per checked bag. Most of the time, wine seems to be allowed. Its not very scientific but thats been my experience.

I will call United Airlines and try to speak to some sort of Supervisor and get the official word. I shall report back as soon as I have more details.

On an important side note.... does anybody know if the TSA has an official directive on this issue? If there is a website that says that liquids are not allowed as carry-on but that they are fine in checked baggage this could be a great tool to use in case one gets into a discussion with a difficult agent.

NTAFlyer

Hope its a VERY precious bottle for the hit you'll take when they stick you with a pet carriage charge

GoingAway

Here is UA's official info on checking wine/alcohol

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,52062,00.html

I'd say an LAX only rule is a made up rule in the minds of the Ticket Agents there and not a "UA" rule at all.

Wiggums

I can see why UA may try to impose this rule...

If EasyJet had this rule in place, the people who waited at the conveyor belt on a flight from Amsterdam to Liverpool would not have seen their bags soaked with Heineken beer.

I had 16 bottles of Heineken in my check-in bag, and about half broke. Wasn't smart, I know, but I was just a young kid back then.

90minfromJFK-CDG

I think the rule is totally reasonable. Unless you're in Timbuktu somewhere, it shouldn't be difficult to find a proper wine carrier to reduce the chances that other pax bags get soaked from a broken bottle of hooch.

Mateo4321

I remember last year packing a entire case of wine into my carry-on, wrapped in clothes and lugging it on board

Also remember carrying 6 handles of bacardi back from Puerto Rico in my carry-on

1P

Take my word for it - no need for styrofoam. Buy bubble wrap in rolls at Target and make sure that you wind it round the bottle at least twice, tape across the middle and then "scrunch" the bubble wrap at the top and bottom of the bottle and tape across that at 90-degree angles to form a two-layer cushion of bubble wrap all round the bottle and top and bottom, and I guarantee that no breakage will occur. Since Target started selling shorter width rolls, I've taken to rolling bottles with the tape diagonally to make sure that top and bottom are properly protected.

Tape is Scotch Super Strength Packaging Tape (transparent), on a red dispenser with cutter, also available at Target. The double layer means that no one can see what you have inside - I've packed wine, mango vinaigrette (not easily obtainable in the UK), honey mustard relish and heaven-knows what else over the years, and never had a breakage or a theft yet. I've even sent whole cases through with nothing but wine in them (but these days, with TSA snooping and thieving - yes, I've had new clothes stolen by them: never ever put new clothes in their original packaging in your case, but always make sure they look as if you've worn them - I'd always mix bottles with clothed, dirty laundry, etc). And yes, this is through LAX (mostly) and SFO. No problems, ever.

martin33

even if CA did (and being the wine capital, they don't!), this trip was between CA and ON, which is not a state.

lexdevil

I bring back a case of whisky from the UK every August. I always declare it, and I've never been charged. Sometimes a young US Customs agent will try to look up my whisky in in his giant tariff book, but he invariably gives up and asks for advice from a more senior agent, who always waves me through. I believe that the fees they'd collect are so low that most don't think it's worth the effort/paperwork for this quantity.