Flying Home With Liquor?

[its_my_dime]

1) Will the airlines (actually coming home from San Juan with at St. Thomas cruise stop) allow you to carry the usual "5 box" of liquor through security?

 

2) If not, does it count as a second bag if you check it?

 

3) I assume that the St. Thomas liquor stores are aware of this problem. What is the solution?

 

Thank you.

[OhioJeff]

1) Will the airlines (actually coming home from San Juan with at St. Thomas cruise stop) allow you to carry the usual "5 box" of liquor through security?

 

2) If not, does it count as a second bag if you check it?

 

3) I assume that the St. Thomas liquor stores are aware of this problem. What is the solution?

 

Thank you.

 

You would need to pack them inside your checked luggage.(bubble wrap a ziplock bags would be my suggestion) Be mindful of weight.

 

Its highly doubtful you would get them if you just tried to check the box. That is way too tempting and easily "lost"

[vtownmom]

A couple of things:

1) we met a couple on their way home from a cruise two years ago and they told us they have been traveling through the Caribbean for several years. They ALWAYS buy their liquor at the duty free shop in San Juan that is just past security. They say they have checked for at least 10 years, and they say they are the best prices they ever find anywhere. And you can carry those on.

2) be careful and know the airport you are flying into and transferring through ahead of time. we did follow that couple's lead and bought some very good priced liquor at the duty free shop, carried it on the plane with no problem (they pack the bottles in a nice padded carrier closed with a ziptie lock) and then flew to Orlando. There we were transferring from Delta to NWA for our flight home and discovered we would have to go through security again getting to the different terminal. So, what do you do with 6 bottles of liquor that you can't carry through? You can't mail them, but you can buy a piece of luggage and check them...but that costs a lot....or you can do what we did. We bought a $10 cardboard suit box at the NWA ticket counter, packed as many empty bottles from the trash bins and the soft stuff from our backpack around it (digging the bottles out of the trash was an exciting thing for security....my husband was followed through the airport through the rest of the time there so not really recommended), checked the box and prayed that the luggage at our home destination wasn't going to come out all smelling like coconut rum!!!

The happy ending was that all pieces made it ok, there was no coconut rum smell on anything when we saw our happy little box coming out on the belt in luggage claim. we were awfully glad we didn't have another transfer. I'm not sure it would have made it!

[_islander_]

We just came back from St. Thomas and had to check our liquor boxes as our second checked bag. We were really worried about the bottles breaking. We only had one bottle crack the tiniest bit at the top. For Delta, you will have to pay for your second bag, but if you fly on American Airlines, they allow your liquor to be checked free of charge. You cannot carry your liquor onto the plane unless you buy it after the security checkpoint like the previous poster mentioned.