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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

Can you not take spirits, wine, or beer (sealed) on a flight in the EU? EDIT: Removed question about duty free, answered by replies below.

Odd, as in the US, there is no limit if in your checked baggage if below 24% ABV, and 5 liters if 24% - 70% (carry on has much stricter limits [3.4oz or less that can fit comfortably in one quart-sized, clear, zip-top bag], but is still permitted).

https://www.tsa.gov/blog/2019/06/21/tsa-travel-tip-traveling...

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Duty free shops put your bottles in a sealed transparent bag with the receipt, everything is perfectly visible.

You're not allowed to open the bag on the flight, obviously.

For checked-in bags, there is no limit in the EU at all as far as I know. The problem is with carry-on, where you are extremely limited in the quantity of liquids you can get past security - no more than ~100ml, and even then it must be in a bottle inside a clear plastic bag.

There probably isn't an EU-level limit, but member countries can set them. In Finland you can bring as much as you want for your own use, but past some point you need to be able to actually prove that it's for your own use. Current guidelines are: 110 liters of beer, 10 liters of other alcohol drinks, 20 liters of max 22 % intermediate products, 90 liters of wines or fermented long drinks/ciders. Common reasons for bringing more than that are e.g. your own wedding.

You can from duty free, just nothing that you bring from outside the airport that goes with your carry-on that passes through security. Your luggage can carry spirits or whatever other drinks you want, just not carry-on though. For... Safety reasons, obviously.

They are after the checkpoints and they are marked. So you can take them on board. But that likely won't work for next flight if you have to through security again... Also some airlines sell stuff that is directly deposited on your seat.

You can buy it from a duty-free shop even if you have multiple flights, even if you have to transfer out of the security area - they seal it in a special bag with receipts attached; when you go to your next security check-in, you present the sealed bag, and they check if it has been less than 24h since it was purchased, they inspect the seals, and they let you through if everything is in order.

I don't want anything to do with seats on planes that have had liquids deposited onto them.

when flying back from china, the duty free shop asked me what my next airport was (Seattle) and whether it was a connecting flight or not (it was). at that point, they told me that they wouldn't sell me anything, as I would have it confiscated.

they were correct, the international arrivals required another bag check to enter the domestic part of the airport, that had the stringent TSA rules (after you went through customs and collected your luggage, before you could drop your luggage off again for your next flight).

so, it appears to be airport by airport when traveling to the US.

Just to confirm, you had a bag check for checked baggage after customs and before your domestic flight, and this was done by the TSA? I've flown into and around the US countless times, including international to domestic connections at SEA, and have never heard of this.

Not doubting your experience because policies change, but every US airport I've flown into has customs and immigration after an international flight, and after re-checking in your hold baggage if you have any, virtually all then route you to the normal TSA check before a domestic flight unless there's an airside transfer option directly to the gates.

you exited the international flight, went through customs, picked up your luggage, and then if you were continuing on to a domestic flight (which required getting past the secured area to the monorail), then you had to go through security again.

at this point, you could no longer have anything in your checked baggage that could not go through standard TSA security, as you were already inside the secured area. some airlines (Alaska, for instance) allowed you to check your baggage PAST that security area, but you still had to make it past.

since you had already picked up your checked baggage, and no longer could get to any connecting flights without either exiting the airport completely (far away from other flights), or going through security again with your luggage to continue to the monorail, you were pretty much screwed.

editing to add: there were a lot of very unhappy people who had their airline provided or purchased past security water bottles being taken away before they could continue to their domestic flights. I have no clue exactly how far I would have had to walk outside of security to get to the domestic terminal, but my flight was so soon that I would never have chanced it.

double editing to add that I've flown international through other airports and never had that type of experience other than through Seattle.

triple editing to note that even SEATAC seemed to think this was a mess and the new international arrivals terminal is due to open "soon".

> Can you not take spirits, wine, or beer (sealed) on a flight in the EU? How do duty free shops work if that’s the case?

The duty free is inside the secure area, you've already passed security.

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