I’m planning on flying cross country with some local beers in my checked bag. I saw in an article that if you’re flying with a large amount of liquid, it has a high chance of being checked by tsa. I’m worried that they will unwrap the beer, and place it back in my bag without wrapping them, causing the beers to hit each other and break. Has anyone else ever had this happen? Or is this uncommon?
I have done this many times. Pad them and put them in zip lock bags in case of breakage.
I have flown with a 12 pack and two crowlers in a checked bag and had no issues. If it is cans, I found a shoe box works good for securing them from moving around.
I’ll never forget the first time I decided I was going to mule a bunch of beer home in my suitcase. It was a Nashville trip with some of my best friends. Nashville is such a fun city, and the mid-country location means there are a ton of great breweries that get distributed there. There are also more than a handful of breweries that are worth hitting up!
I ended up with a ton of beer. It was stupid. I’ll admit it.
As I’m bagging up all the beer on the kitchen table of our AirBnb, looking like a washed up suburban hipster drug dealer, my wife asks how I’ll fit it all.
Don’t believe me, just watch.
I fill the suitcases to the brim, sit on them to zip, all’s well. I told you I could do it *sassy AF*
We pull up to the airport and check our bags. I put the first one on the scale. 45lbs. *Smug* Dang I’m good. The lady muscles it onto the conveyor, and down it goes. I pull up the second bag. 60-something. I don’t remember the exact level because what ensued was some Karen-level frustration and fussing.
“It’s ok, sir. It’s just $75 for an overweight luggage fee.”
Oof. BIG oof.
“$75 DOLLARS!? Daaang.”
I explain to her in my least patient voice that I’m not about to pay no dang fees because she put my other bag on the conveyor, and now I can’t shift the weight to my lighter bag. This lady was a vet. She didn’t even flinch, she knew I wasn’t about to budge either, and the line behind me was already long. She took off briskly and then reappears just as quickly as she vanished.
Like Batman.
She’s holding a brown cardboard box.
Quietly, with her tilted head down, eyebrows raised, and head on a swivel for anybody being nosey, she whispers – almost through her teeth – to me… “Here. This should be big enough.” She hands me a Sharpie and proceeds to tell me, “We usually don’t do this, but just put your name, phone number, and address on this box, and fill it up real quick.”
*Zzzzzip*
Wife’s blow dryer, some boots, a 6 pack, and some other random things that I could fit… they all go into the box that this kind, patient woman provided to my stupid self. I hand it back to her, she tapes it up, and she promptly puts it on the conveyor. “Enjoy your flight, sir.”
Dang. Southwest is the realest.
I failed to mention that my wife already took off because we were running late for our flight, so I do my best dad-bod airport sprint to catch up to her. I won’t even tell y’all how much grief she gave me once I caught up to her, but my beer arrived safely along with our luggage, and all was well with the world. The homies got a bunch of cans, I took the obligatory IG beer wall pic, and I learned from this lesson.
The key take away here is always put the heaviest bag first when checking luggage and move down to the lightest. This holds true wether or not you’re trying to fly with beer in your checked luggage.
You can bring beer in carry-on luggage, but only in really small 3.4 oz mini bottles. In terms of beer 3.4 is about a quarter of a standard 12 oz can.
You can’t easily buy beer in such small bottles. So you can’t really take any significant quantity of beer in carry-on luggage.
While you can technically bring a tiny beer in your plastic quart bag in your carry on it’s not really worth the trouble.
If there is a shop where you can buy beer after airport security you can take that beer on a plane in a plastic carrier bag. But only if you have purchased it after the security checkpoint.
Only JetBlue will actually let you drink your own beer on a plane. If you ask they will be happy to pour it for you.