Alcohol in checked luggage...is it safe?

[HappyCampers3]

What has your experience been with alcohol in checked luggage?

 

Any tricks in wrapping it to prevent breakage?

 

Have you ever found it to be missing once you return home?

[cb at sea]

If you lock your bags, nothing should go missing! Always, ALWAYS, lock your checked bags!

[cruisestitch]

Since I assume that you are talking about alcohol that you purchase in the shop on board and take home with you, I recommend that you have them encase the bottles in their inflatable, protective package. They work very well and the shop will deliver them to your stateroom the last night of the cruise all enclosed and ready to put in your suitcase. The only time I had a potential problem with them was when I bought Sheridan's which comes in a non-standard shaped bottle, but they managed to get it into one of the inflatable packages anyway.

[NnJ2010]

Be careful about locking your luggage. If you do not use a tsa approved lock they can and will cut it off if they decide they need to look inside your bag. I never lock my luggage, travel all over the world and have had no problems with things stolen because I place nothing of value in my luggage. All those items are in my carry on.

 

I've traveled with alcohol in my luggage too many times to count - checked bags. Frequently I'm given bottles of wine on my travels and i bring them home as I can't drink them all on my own ;) In all my years I've had a problem one time - and I knew better than to put it in my luggage in the fashion I did but it was a last minute gift and I was already packed and so it was my own fault (of course that ONE time had to be with red wine...).

 

wrap it in a towel or clothing (make sure that they are clothes that you don't mind getting ruined if somehow it happens.) and then stick it in a plastic bag heavy ziplock or even just some sort of plastic shopping type bag. (usually if I'm bringing it home I take and wrap clothes around it then stick it in the plastic laundry bags that all hotels have and wrap it around and twist the end so that it's unlikely to leak much if it should break. I place it in the biggest interior pocket in the middle so that it receives even further cushioning (be sure to place clothing on all sides of it even the top).

[islandgirlejfan]

I brought home two bottles of Cruzan Black Strap rum from the Virgin Islands in my brand new Liz Claiborne bag....I had my bottles wrapped very well, but they managed to break one anyway in a bag that was suppose to receive priority handling as we flew first class on my hubby's mileage. In this case, I think the priority tag was a cue for the baggage gorillas to treat the bag even worse than they normally do!:rolleyes: My clothing smelled pretty nice :) and all of the rum came out of them thankfully. I'm going to bring some bubble wrap and tape with me on the next trip.

[mathgeek1978]

Here you go:

 

http://www.wineskin.net/

[cruisestitch]

Oh, and the on-board store will sell you those inflatables even if you didn't buy the spirits there. On a recent cruise, I won a bottle of champagne I didn't have time to drink on board, so I went to the shop and bought one of the inflated protectors, put the champagne in my suitcase, and brought it home.

[Shelbs97]

Don't most airlines tell you NOT to lock your checked bags? Because they have the right to pop the locks anyway? I know the American Airlines website says that.