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Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/8/2024 6:37:20 PM

BenG

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I've taken wine bottles in my check in luggage probably once or twice a year for the last 15 years and have only had a total of two or three broken bottles in that whole time. This last trip, through SFO, DEN and GEG, I had five bottles smashed.

Anyone else had breakages lately?

< Message edited by BenG -- 5/8/2024 9:01:08 PM >

Post #: 1

RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/8/2024 7:39:02 PM

fingers

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Well, if it's your carry on, who's breaking the bottles?

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/8/2024 9:01:27 PM

BenG

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quote:

ORIGINAL: fingers

Well, if it's your carry on, who's breaking the bottles?

Hah! Fixed.

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/8/2024 9:26:16 PM

jmcmchi

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I’ve never had a broken bottle…..yet. Admittedly, most was international as opposed to domestic travel, and Nora supervises my packing efforts

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/8/2024 9:31:40 PM

wine247365

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None yet, thankfully… both domestic and internationally. Just returned from Melbourne, Oz to LAX with 4 in checked luggage and nothing was broken.

@BenG…were they protected differently than in the past?

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/8/2024 9:49:39 PM

BenG

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I believe it happened domestically (we flew in from Sydney to SFO) because there was no leakage or smell from the bags when we were handling them through customs at SFO.

I've probably become a bit less careful with packing than I used to after so few breakages. This was the first time we took so many bottles back with us (44 rather than 24). I have solid dividers between each bottle (cardboard six pack) so not quite sure how it happened. I think I'll go back to individually wrapping the bottles with bubble wrap or socks before placing in the six pack and double check that the box can not move within the suitcase.

< Message edited by BenG -- 5/8/2024 9:52:58 PM >

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/8/2024 10:38:43 PM

jmcmchi

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For dozens I use a winecheck, rarely put more than three bottles in a single suitcase (bubble wrap or socks/sweaters in a plastic bag) since we like to use carry-on size cases if possible and manage the weight.

I can’t lug around 60lb bags anymore- I’m impressed that you could handle 44 bottles in your cases, that’s easily 120lb before your clothing etal

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/9/2024 5:02:23 AM

penguinoid

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quote:

ORIGINAL: BenG

I think I'll go back to individually wrapping the bottles with bubble wrap or socks before placing in the six pack and double check that the box can not move within the suitcase.

Yes, this is pretty much what I do, except I don't generally put them in a box -- I just make sure my luggage is packed tightly enough that they're not going to rattle around and there's no exposed glass surfaces that could smash against other glass surfaces or the bag itself. So far(!) I've not had any breakages.

It's a shame you can't take wine as carry-on luggage!

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/9/2024 5:06:09 AM

penguinoid

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quote:

ORIGINAL: jmcmchi
I can’t lug around 60lb bags anymore- I’m impressed that you could handle 44 bottles in your cases, that’s easily 120lb before your clothing etal

Wow, yes, that is impressive! I've never managed more than about ~15 bottles, and 12 is generally the most I'll take. If nothing else, the airline excess baggage fees tend to be intimidating

Losing 4 bottles isn't great, but 4 out of 44 is still a decent overall survival rate!

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/9/2024 5:36:31 AM

DoubleD1969

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A dozen bottles in a styro shipper weighs under 50lbs. I make it easy for the handlers by tying thick rope around the box. The rope provides a place for them to grab. It has never failed.

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Post #: 10

RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/9/2024 6:07:07 AM

penguinoid

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That's still a fair proportion of the baggage allowance in most airlines. 50lb is ~22kg, and (for example) Singapore Air gives a baggage allowance of about 30kg (~66kg). Not much left for clothes etc!

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/9/2024 9:00:35 AM

wineismylife

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Well knock on wood I've never had a broken bottle. Checking a dozen for our trip to Kauai next Thursday. Hopefully my streak will continue. If not, I'll get back with you shortly.

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/9/2024 10:34:41 AM

Jenise

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I've never packed more than 1 or 2 bottles in check-in luggage and never had a problem. If we travel with wine we usually travel with enough to warrant taking our Wine Check, either for what goes with us or what we plan to bring back.

But once upon a time, when you could still do that, we had a bottle of 40 year old port in a carry-on from LA to Houston. Forgive me if I've told this story here before, I may have. It was a somber occasion: Bob's father Fred had just died in a fire in his home, and we were going there to literally sift through the ashes of a man's life. The bottle was a thank you gift for the port-lovers we'd be staying with, total strangers IRL but known from the wine/food internet, and they happened to live in the same small Texas town as Bob's dad and generously offered to put us up. We wrapped it in a towel and stowed it on its side in a small leather duffel. The port was the only thing in it.

About an hour before landing, we noticed a maroon drip coming down the wall from the overhead compartment.

It looked like blood but unless someone had stashed a dead body up there, that was our port. Bob ran to the bathroom for a fistful of paper towels, and we wiped it off after making sure an attendant wasn't looking.

Then came another. Then two more and so on. So we'd make sure the coast was clear, then wipe, then check, then wipe, and it was starting to feel like a Marx Brothers movie--the mission so horrific, the situation so ridiculous: a dead Fred and a bottle of port whose old cork had apparently popped loose due to cabin pressure. I'll never understand how/why no one seemed to notice because we were in full panic mode, but finally we were strapped in for landing unable to do anything more but laugh as the rivulets kept coming. And I mean laugh! Hysterical, unstoppable giggles, so we didn't so much as walk off that plane as we lurched down that aisle holding each other up expecting someone to yell "Hey you forgot your bag!"

They didn't.

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/10/2024 3:09:17 AM

forceberry

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Just arrived from Portugal with two dozen bottles in checked-in luggage. All came in one piece.

Over the past 15 years I've traveled with hundreds of bottles with not a single breakage. However, I'm quite thorough when packing the bottles, so that definitely helps. I can't understand how some people just put unprotected wine bottles in their luggage and only hope for the best.

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/10/2024 3:32:17 AM

Echinosum

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Jenise
About an hour before landing, we noticed a maroon drip coming down the wall from the overhead compartment.

It looked like blood but unless someone had stashed a dead body up there, that was our port. Bob ran to the bathroom for a fistful of paper towels, and we wiped it off after making sure an attendant wasn't looking....

We were once on a flight when a very horrible fishy smell started to become evident in our immediate locality. We concluded that the person sitting next to us had trimethylaminuria, a medical condition that makes you smell of rotting fish.

But when sometime later we went to retrieve something from our hand baggage in the cabinet above, we discovered that smelly fishy liquid was leaking from one of our carry-on bags. Likewise we tried surreptitiously to wipe it up, but it had got everywhere and the stink was hard to conceal.

What had happened is that we were coming home from the Azores, some Portuguese islands in mid-Atlantic, and bought some bacalhau - dried salt cod - in a supermarket to bring home, as it used to be quite hard to find in Britain. As it was vacuum packed, my wife thought it safe to put in our carry-on. But bacalhau is quite hard with pointy edges and had punctured its packaging. The salt on the fish had absorbed water from the air, become liquid, and stinkingly leaked out.

The wine in our hold baggage was fine. There's some rather delicious and distinctive wine - table wine and fortified - from the Azores.

< Message edited by Echinosum -- 5/10/2024 3:34:24 AM >

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/10/2024 4:21:08 PM

Redrunners

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I have never had a bottle break

Currently use vingard valise, previously used the wine check.
Always used the styrofoam case rather than cardboard dividers. Always did a good job keeping the bottles safe

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/10/2024 5:58:50 PM

KPB

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I once lost 4 out of 8 well-packed bottled of Pegau da Capo. They made it from Avignon to Paris, CDG to JFK and JFK to Syracuse. And then as we waited in Syracuse a kid walks in and tosses the box vaguely towards a table. It crashes into the edge, smashed to the floor, wine everywhere. Kid exits, stage left….

Now I use a vinvalise

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/10/2024 7:14:02 PM

DoubleD1969

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I bought the Vin Valise back when Covid started. I haven’t used it on an airplane. I noticed the handles stick out a bit. Has anyone lose a handle after checking it in an airplane?

< Message edited by DoubleD1969 -- 5/11/2024 12:31:25 PM >

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/11/2024 8:36:42 AM

sastewart

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We have 2 Vin Garde Valise (one 8 bottle and one 12 bottle) and have never had trouble using them when flying.

Long ago, we checked a 12 bottle styrofoam case on our flight home from Alsace and Champagne. I did not arrive until 3 days later - battered box and broken styrofoam but the bottles were intact!

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/11/2024 5:37:32 PM

KPB

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Thirty years ago, my wife’s father realized that a student in his department would visit Ithaca and sent a parcel of Swiss emergency food to help us survive the winter. Namely, homemade poire Williams eaux de vie, a tête de moines cheese, dried cured beef (bresaola) and home made jam. We got a hysterical giggling phone call that night to please urgently come and get it.

On arrival the box had been tied to the shaft of a broom and was outside at the mailbox. The courier wished us well with more hysterical giggling from fifty feet away.

In our car, the best description would be vomit. Even open windows couldn’t really help. Basically all the glass had broken, and the liquids had turned the outside of the beef and the cheese to soft gunk. Very aromatic gunk.

We salvaged the cheese and beef, but wow, that was some aroma. The passengers in the plane must have been pretty angry…

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/12/2024 5:57:10 AM

daviladc

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DoubleD1969

I bought the Vin Valise back when Covid started. I haven’t used it on an airplane. I noticed the handles stick out a bit. Has anyone lose a handle after checking it in an airplane?

We picked up two of the 12 bottle version when someone posted about the clearance of old stock here just before covid. Since then the only thing we've had happen to the case is a cracked wheel, but we use it all the time. The handles have never been a problem. Bottles well protected, even when bringing back 50+ year old bottles from Italy a few years ago, they arrived intact.

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/12/2024 6:28:42 AM

DoubleD1969

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That’s good to know. Thanks!

If I recall, the owner sold the business. I think you and I (and others) took advantage of the inventory he had left. The 12-bottle luggage was something like $125 with free shipping (or very low). One of the best wine deals!

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/12/2024 6:32:16 AM

daviladc

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Exactly!

They get used a lot. We let friends borrow them to go to Europe all the time as long as we get a bottle left in it when they return the case.

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/12/2024 8:46:37 AM

KPB

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I’ve used mine for several trips. No problems at all.

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/13/2024 11:30:24 AM

wicozani

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Another shoutout for the Wine Check!

We have two of the originals in bright red, and we've taken both on trips to Australia and Italy, returning each time with a case in each Wine Check and some more individual bottles in our checked luggage. Never a broken bottle (taps on wood).

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/15/2024 12:31:30 AM

penguinoid

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Thankfully I've avoided some of the horror stories here, though maybe mostly through luck. One time I flew with a Swiss airline from Geneva to Heathrow and they destroyed my suitcase -- it was a hard-shell suitcase, and they put quite a few large cracks in it. It was basically destroyed. Not sure what they did to it.

I had a further flight from Heathrow to Brisbane a few days later (and no money for another suitcase), but managed to bodge a repair with packing tape, superglue, and some hard plastic to use as splints.

There was quite a bit of wine in the bag, and it survived both flights -- even if the bag didn't!

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/15/2024 1:18:15 AM

Paul852

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quote:

ORIGINAL: penguinoid

Thankfully I've avoided some of the horror stories here, though maybe mostly through luck. One time I flew with a Swiss airline from Geneva to Heathrow and they destroyed my suitcase -- it was a hard-shell suitcase, and they put quite a few large cracks in it. It was basically destroyed. Not sure what they did to it.

I had a further flight from Heathrow to Brisbane a few days later (and no money for another suitcase), but managed to bodge a repair with packing tape, superglue, and some hard plastic to use as splints.

There was quite a bit of wine in the bag, and it survived both flights -- even if the bag didn't!

Airlines will replace your case in these circumstances, although it can sometimes take a while, and you don't generally get to choose the new case - it is just one that the airline regards as "equivalent" to the old one. I have a bright red (a colour I would never buy) hard shell case for this reason!

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Post #: 27

RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/15/2024 3:08:06 AM

penguinoid

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Paul852

quote:

ORIGINAL: penguinoid

Thankfully I've avoided some of the horror stories here, though maybe mostly through luck. One time I flew with a Swiss airline from Geneva to Heathrow and they destroyed my suitcase -- it was a hard-shell suitcase, and they put quite a few large cracks in it. It was basically destroyed. Not sure what they did to it.

I had a further flight from Heathrow to Brisbane a few days later (and no money for another suitcase), but managed to bodge a repair with packing tape, superglue, and some hard plastic to use as splints.

There was quite a bit of wine in the bag, and it survived both flights -- even if the bag didn't!

Airlines will replace your case in these circumstances, although it can sometimes take a while, and you don't generally get to choose the new case - it is just one that the airline regards as "equivalent" to the old one. I have a bright red (a colour I would never buy) hard shell case for this reason!

Oh, that's interesting -- I had no idea! I didn't think to contact the airline for some reason.

I am not sure it would have been practical at the time, since I was only in the UK for a few days before flying on and so there probably wouldn't have been time to work through the bureaucratic process

.

Next time, though. Hoping there isn't a next time, of course!

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/15/2024 5:55:53 AM

Paul852

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quote:

ORIGINAL: penguinoid

Oh, that's interesting -- I had no idea! I didn't think to contact the airline for some reason.

I am not sure it would have been practical at the time, since I was only in the UK for a few days before flying on and so there probably wouldn't have been time to work through the bureaucratic process .

Next time, though. Hoping there isn't a next time, of course!

For the fastest results you need to do it whilst in the baggage claim area - there's generally a counter where you can report missing/damaged luggage, and there's no real room for doubt if you show the bag there straight off the carousel.

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RE: Bottles Smashed At Airport - 5/15/2024 6:16:31 AM

KPB

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In fact they have a whole storage area at most airports, with new luggage still in plastic bags and with tags. You get to pick anything you like that has the same dimensions.

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Post #: 30