any good tips for taking a good amount of wine on an airplane?
 

flying southwest airlines to denver. thanksgiving.

to my sister's. putting up with her bullkrap will require wine; lots of wine. say 6 bottles. gotta be something better than wrapping it up with my underwear, and using hardsided luggage. any BTDT's?

Why not buy the wine in Denver? Not sure if you can check it as baggage but definitely won't be able to carry on.

1) Ship it FedEx.

2) Pack it is heavy bubblewrap and check it in.

3) Drink it first just before the flight, then the Thanksgiving is more fun for all

i have some great friends in the business. they pass on some ridiculous savings on to me. i have built up quite the stash. would love to travel with some of it. hard to go back to paying full retail.

I use those new neoprene sleeves. You can get them at places like BevMo or nice winse shops and they do a great job of protecting the bottles.

how cold does it get in the luggage hold of an airplane?
will that affect the wine?

Body cavity.

Most holds do not get that cold. It's a 2 hour flight from Baghdad By The Bay to Denver. I second the neo sleeves.

Have fun, I think our sisters are related.

Fedex or take your chances in your luggage. If you have to pay to check bags Fedex will be cheaper. How much are you saving on the vino?

Seriously, I noticed these products the last time I flew:

Aluminum Travel Wine Safe | Home Living | SkyMall

I dont know about the neoprene, but BevMo has styrofoam shipping containers with the outer box for 2, 4, 6 bottles of wine. Just buy one of those, and check it. I take wine on my trips all the time, and thats what I do. Southwest doesnt charge for checking luggage if I'm not mistaken, so it will be way cheaper that Fedex.

Remember that you will have to check it, so it will be subject to the manipulations of the baggage staff. I'd make sure the case is bomb-proof. Additionally you may find yourself slapped with an extra luggage fee that negates your savings to some extent.

Denver has good wine stores.

Keep her to three bottles. One at the gate, two in her carry on.

Enjoy your bird.

Buy in Denver or ship Fedex

I use Great Stuff spray foam to ship breakables.

Take a cork screw

This alone would force my decision to Fedex it!

Best,
Tom

One bottle of good Scotch ... will do all the damage you would get from many bottles of wine.

Don't take good wine for family. Save it for important stuff :D

On my first trip to Key West back in the early 80's I was quite pleased to run across a liquor store that sold Boodles Gin, the same brand that John D. MacDonald's "Travis McGee" character drank - after his Plymouth Gin days.
I had always wanted to try it but being in liqour controlled Alabama our "State Stores" didn't have it on the shelf.
I had bought a fifth from the purveyor of fine spirits in KW and proceeded to drink it all in a couple days as my mind wandered and pen danced across paper writing tales that'd never sell.
When my time was up I knew I had to bring home some Boodles, but how. Delta had runied a bag or two for me in the past, so what to do.
Well, I bought a University of Miami gym bag, one with a small lock, and took all of the sweat shirts and sweat pants - it was a Winter trip, mind you - and wrapped up three fifth bottles in layer after layer of soft cotton clothes for the flight home.
Somehow, some way, they made the flight just fine! Maybe I was just lucky.

6 bottles? you're worried about 6 bottles? step up to the plate man, and add a zero to that number.

heck, for that small half case amount, you could flat rate ship it USPS or UPS for 10-15 bucks.

Go here and get one of these boxes-

http://www.boxvendor.com/ProductImages/6pk_styro.jpg

We used on these boxes and checked 6 bottles of wine from South Africa through France and then to the US without a problem. A decent wine shop in SF should have a similar box.

I have found that most places sell Old Crow. And that works for me.

Buy it there.

Cliff you can buy 6 pack shippers (like the one pictured above) at any serious wine shop. I buy them from a wholesaler, but in a pinch pick them up at the larger wine warehouses.

Here are the challenges: You can check it as luggage, but I'd put the box in a big duffel bag as an obvious wine box says to the luggage handlers, "drink me or shake me hard and throw me around."

I'd prefer to ship it, but most mortals can't ship alcohol. You have to be an approved alcohol shipper, and most fedex/ups places are not. And there are timing issues of where you want it to sit in transit, and where you don't. This is always a problem for our consumer shipments.

Yes, you can label the contents, "vinegar" or something cute like that, but you have better than average odds of having it returned or "lost."

Let me know if I can help, I can connect you with our wine shipping service and they even have the styro shippers.

I made some shipping containers out of PVC. I wrap the bottles in "small bubble" bubble wrap and put the tubes in a foam lined box. My brother and I have shipped beer back and forth between Georgia and Washington with no issues. I ship UPS and I declare it "glassware". The weak point in this system is the box itself.

I've ad hoc shipped champagne on airlines a couple times. I went to a U-haul store, bought a book box with dividers for 12 (handy isn't that), plus a role of bubble wrap. Wrapped each bottle in bubble wrap, slipped them into the slots, then made sure there were no rattles. Tape the box securely and deliver to checked baggage at the airport. Never had a break, wine tasted the same, cheap solution. Also can get the packing material at Lowes and Home Depot.

U-haul, but call around to see if they have this:

http://store.uhaul.com/master_product_detail.aspx?id=169

That seems like the best solution...

Buy the wine once you get here. It will give you an excuse to get out of the house. You should go to Apple Jacks. One of the largest and busiest liquor stores in the country. Excellent wine selection and good pricing. I visit Apple Jacks frequently to fill up my cellar. We built a large climate controlled wine cellar that holds 1200 wines but never has more than 300 in it. I feel like I am always wine shopping.

Good luck!

Steve

You are fortunate that you have the option to ship.
In Canada only corporations are allowed to ship inter- provincially.
We cannot ship wine home from another country, either.
A law that goes back to prohibition days. Conveniently used to further the corporate agenda.

First you're gonna need a black 1978 Trans Am. Next, pick up a copy of Jerry Reed's Eastbound and Down.....

And apparently wine drinking! :D