Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Traveling with Beer: A Success Story

Ok, without being too dramatic...Mission Accomplished! Five beers successfully transported via checked luggage on US Airways to San Francisco. I'm only excited because I've never done this before and was quite skeptical that at least one bottle wouldn't arrive either broken or stolen. I'd previously only ever carried beer on to a flight with my carry-on luggage. But, after a thin layer of styrofoam and bubble wrap, each bottle was inserted and sealed into a sandwich bag. Then, each bottle was shoved into a shoe and covered over by a piece of clothing. (Except for the bomber, which had to be placed between clothing items. Now, I'm looking forward to trying this again on the return home with a new stash for personal consumption. Stay tuned...

4 comments:

Mark Stoffan said...

I'm really surprised they made it through OK. My checked bags have been searched several times. Suits, ties, etc. were left crumpled in a pile. You're lucky they didn't just tear the padding off and leave the bottles unprotected. I wouldn't even think of putting anything breakable in a checked bag.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

I don't try to transport bottles via checked bags, anymore. I mail mine, now, (or use FedX, UPS, etc).

Adam said...

Good luck. I'm not sure I would be willing to risk it. Hope you're having a great time out in CA :-)

Anonymous said...

I've done this many times with both wine and beer for the past 5 years without any incidents. As long as you protect the bottles I wouldn't worry about security opening anything and leaving them unprotected. Although if you don't mind spending the extra cash to ship via UPS I'd go that route. I personally don't want to double the price of the beer by shipping it, but that's just me.