Wine and airplanes

[buddha]

For those of you who have done more travelling then me have you had any issues bringing wine in your checked luggage? We are heading back to the USA and are going to pack wine to bring home, 17 bottles to be exact. We are moving back so we have plenty of space and luggage for the wine and it's packed well. We are flying Delta if that matters.

Any help or experiences are very appreciated.

 

[dennisr]

CHECKED LUGGAGE, OK. Bit of a pain in the ass, paying the duty. Not the cost so much, the paper work.

"Duty rates on alcoholic beverages are based on the percent of alcohol per liter in the product - not on units of packaging such as per bottle/case. Duty on wine and beer is generally low, $1-2 per liter, while fortified wines and spirits are considerably higher. Duty rates can be obtained in Chapter 22 "Beverages, Spirits and Vinegar," in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule."

 

[Napoleon]

The duty is almost NOTHING. And that's IF they decide to actually charge you.

The problem is the weight. If you go over the 50lb limit, then the wine goes up in price. A lot. But it still might be worth it.

 

[HeyBA]

I thought there was a rule about flying with liquids now. Everything has two be in containers under three ounces, in a ziplock bag?

The last flight I took out of EZE, I had put some vitamins, all different shapes and colors, in one ziplock bag. Apparently the rule for checked luggage is that pills must be in their original packaging. They were doing the bag search after check in and security, but before boarding, and they made me throw the vitamins out.

Though this is different than the liquids rule, it was being enforced.

 

[starlucia]

I thought there was a rule about flying with liquids now. Everything has two be in containers under three ounces, in a ziplock bag?

The last flight I took out of EZE, I had put some vitamins, all different shapes and colors, in one ziplock bag. Apparently the rule for checked luggage is that pills must be in their original packaging. They were doing the bag search after check in and security, but before boarding, and they made me throw the vitamins out.

Though this is different than the liquids rule, it was being enforced.

You're referring to the rules for liquids in carry-on luggage, not checked. You can still freely pack liquids in your checked bags (barring import restrictions and such.)

 

[jimdepalermo]

When I was flying back and forth between BsAs and New York a few years ago, I always packed a 6-bottle case of wines not (then) sold in the US. Curiously, many were not as interesting there as they had been here.

Once I invited a couple sommelier friends for a tasting. Of 9 bottles we opened, they both argued that 3 of the 9 bottles were slightly damaged. I didn't taste obvious damage, but they were certainly not equal to the same wines I knew here. We could only speculate that going from BsAs hot weather - I had flown them up in February - to the cold bodega on the very long flight somehow affected them. Corks were all normal, and there were no changes in color.

 

[buddha]

If I'm reading correctly we are fine. Since we are moving back we will probably be over weight so it doesn't matter. I didn't think there was any issue with bottles in your checked baggage so thanks for all the help.

 

[PhilipDT]

No issue with bottles in check bags.

Duty is almost nothing in the states and most of the time they don't even charge you.

 

[kurtdillard]

No issue with bottles in check bags.

Duty is almost nothing in the states and most of the time they don't even charge you.

Philip, Napolean, and others are correct, the duty is low for wine and CBP rarely collects it at the airport. I know of people who regularly bring 12 bottles with them and were never charged. CBP focuses harder on ciggarettes and liquor. This thread has a lot of info: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/argentina/644640-rules-transporting-wine-out-eze-usa.html, Gaucho100k, who provides many of the answers in the thread, owns an upscale winestore in Palermo and has sent thousands of tourists back to the US with lots of wine.

 

[glasgowjohn]

I used to travel frequently from Spain to the USA and always carried between 6-12 bottles of wine.
I always declared it and never had to pay duty once / I second Kurt's comment that they are after people with spirits and tobacco.
Best of luck !