Flying with wine....

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
This is driving me crazy.... no straight answers from anybody...

With the new stupid 3/1/1 fluids rules, how can one take wine on an international flight?
You can't take it in carry on. If you check it with luggage, it will probably freeze. I called USAir and they said, "we'll put a fragile sticker on it. But it will travel with your luggage." Said for continental flights they have a special place for it, but not international. "Ask the folks at the counter when you get there." WTF... I'm not going to buy wine and take it to the airport only to discover I can't take it and have to dump it. That's stupid.

I know I am not the only guy that wants to take wine in/out of our country.
 
make sure the seal isnt broken?

I doubt your wine would freeze in the cargo hold unless you were traveling in a particularly cold part of the world. I read that temps in cargo holds vary from 30 to 70 degree's F.
 
You should be fine with your wine as checked baggage. I have a friend that every time he travels to Cali, he brings back a case of wine from Trader Joe's. He checks it every time. He only had one time where one bottle got broken. He does it every time without blinking an eye.
 
I've brought back PLENTY of Beer in Bottles and Cans and an assortment of Nice (thin) Beer Glasses in My Checked Luggage from Europe. Stick it in a Dirty Sock and Pack it tight. If you want to bring back Glasses, Pack your Dirty clothes as tight as you can inside the Glasses and then roll them up in T-shirts. Then pack them to the center of the suitcase. I've never broken a bottle, Can or Glass. and never frozen any either. If beer doesn't freeze with an alcohol content of 5-8% then Wine won't at 12%.
 
OK, well then, I guesst his is much ado about nothing.
I am no wine snob by any means... actually I'm just taking soem OVER to freinds in Birmingham as a wedding present.
I just figured the temp change would not be good for it. Flight to Europe goes alot higher (e.g colder) for aot longer than continental flights. But we aren't talking $100 bottles here either.
 
Complain to the airlines, tell them they should let anybody take whatever they want on an airplane. That should fix em'...

Really, I wish they would be MORE strict with checking luggage, but due to lack of $$$ and people to check luggage, they can't.

If you can complain about not being able to take a bottle of wine, I am sure the next Arab that wants to kill some people can complain about not being able to take his bottle of "wine" too...

If you REALLY want to take it, pack it tight, in your luggage, hope it doesn't freeze, but don't expect to take it with your carry-on. Not sure what alcohol freezes at, but I really doubt it WOULD freeze.

How often do you see luggage bags with frost on them after a long flight?
 
Tacoma747 said:
If you can complain about not being able to take a bottle of wine, I am sure the next Arab that wants to kill some people can complain about not being able to take his bottle of "wine" too...
Click to expand...

Well, based on thi logic, it'd probably be the best solution for everybody to be allowed to take only airport-issued clothing to be worn through the flight, nothing else. Then we'd definiteky be secure. And oh, so free to enjoy it, too...

Tacoma747 said:
How often do you see luggage bags with frost on them after a long flight?
Click to expand...

it wasn't really a matter of freezing, per se, but just keeping it at a reasonable temperature. I just don't want to alter the flavor, that's all. Thinking back, and has been pointed out, this was just over paranoia. "real" wines are sensitive to dramatic temperature changes, but really this is more of a problem on the heat end than cool. How many folks do you know that chill their wine, then rewarm it? No, you keep it in a nice dry, cool place until ready to open.
 
Okay jackasses....
Figured I'd bring a bit of Yadkin Valley wine, just 'cause that's a novelty they *don't* have.
The wine accompanies peanut-butter M&Ms and Dr-Pepper Jelly Bellies. Not exactly "look down-your nose" type of folks.
 
Yadkin Valley Wine? Why not just take him some Boones Farm?

On a side note, my Step Dad was in town this weekend. He pulled me to th eside and dropped a bottle of Wine in my hands. Don't recall the name, but it was a french wine he just brought back on the plane in Checked luggage. $1100 bottle of wine and him being a big Wine geek, he assured, no problem.
 
I would most definitley pack it in something watertight....just in case.


Matt

BTW - Don't they have Maddog in the UK?


Matt - chimin' in
 
checked in baggage from Italy

Wifey and I went to Italy in May. Other tourists claimed there's a "3 bottle limit" per bag, so we stuffed each with 3 bottles and had no issues. Turns out we could have stuffed those bags with as much as we could fit.

It was rather well protected amoung the clothes, shoes, etc. We didn't wrap them in anything special and all bottles came through no problem. However, all were in a cardboard box (single, double, or triple), essentially whatever came with the purchase.

Most wineries (even in Yadkin Valley) will give you the cardboard carriers. I'd recommend packing your bottles inside those.

Good luck.
 
Cargo holds actually range from 0 to 105 degrees...0 degrees is about the same temp as your home freezer so buy a cheap(yes they have cheaper than yadkin valley wine) "test bottle" and let it sit in your car for a day while ur at work or something in the sun then put it in the freezer for about 24 hours id say then put it in your car for a day again...then taste it...if it taste the same as before itll be fine...thats the only way i can think of to tell...and i can see why you think that it may be colder flying longer but that is actually not true..this 105 degree range in temperature can happen in a single flight...im in the middle of gettin my pilots license my mama use to be a flight attendant and worked the desk and many other airport jobs and my stepdad is an aircraft mechanic at timco and has been for man years so im not just talkin outta my a** for once lol...honestly im not a wine person either and if it is destroyed during the flight(which it shouldnt because i mean no one can say that those 100 year old bottles of wine havent been through hell and back) but if it does then its only yadkin valley and they should understand...but like i said im not big on wine but my grandfather is one of those "wine experts" not a snob by any means either just likes wine and was told by his doc to drink a glass a day(now scotch instead of wine) but hes told me everytime we drink wine that the price isnt a big deal...he pays no more than like 6 or 7 dollars a bottle...just bringem a case of budlight...if it gets really cold then itll be perfect...if it gets really warm itll be a nice joke
 
That post made my eyes and head hurt. I thought I'd chime in and give another vote for packing it in your checked baggage. I brought 3 bottles of Rum back from the USVI a month ago and had zero problems. I am pretty sure they were rough with our bags as well, since they were covered in grease and my wifes duffle bag had a nice tear in the top pocket. I'd run with it.
 
Good freakin God!
I never expected this to become such a big deal.

I just packed it in my suitcase, covered in a few brown bags and a plastic one just for worst case, and had no problems. One traveled in a suitcase, the other in a duffel. No problems with it.

We drank the white the first night, seemed fine to me.

Only problem we had was unrelated, the jughead 20 y/o high-school dropout in security wouldn't let us bring through small bottles on juice for our son, even though the TSA website very specifically says this is OK for small children and 2 others agreed. I told the wife to print out the page and bring it, just 'cause Ie knew it'd coem up. She sloughed it off, "It's in the rules, surely they know". Uh huh, 5 minutes of arguing with him proved her wrong.
Oh well, more important things to worry about.... like how to stay undert he 50lb weight limit coming back w/ more beer and chocolate...
 
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