“Can I bring alcohol on a plane?” is a commonly asked question from those who enjoy traveling with their own booze. The short answer is “yes”, you can bring alcohol in your checked luggage or carry-on bag while flying on commercial airplanes. Whether or not you should, and how to ensure that you are complying with TSA regulations & your airline’s policies, is another question entirely. Today we dig into what you need to know if you want to travel with alcohol on your next trip.
What rules do I need to follow when bringing alcohol on a plane?
When traveling with something as regulated as alcohol, there are a number of overlapping rules & regulations that you need to be aware of. The answer is more nuanced than you might think.
Local City/State Alcohol Laws for Traveling with Alcohol
First, let’s start with the local & regional ordinances. We are a U.S.-based website, so let’s get the obvious out of the way: you shouldn’t be traveling with alcohol if you are under 21 years old. For domestic travel within the U.S., there are virtually no laws that prevent you from carrying alcohol for “personal consumption” across state lines (so long as you aren’t doing it solely to avoid taxation).
TSA Regulations for Screening Alcohol
The Transportation Security Administration, the folks in blue who oversee our nation’s airport security, screens what can & cannot be allowed through airport security checkpoints. The TSA treats alcohol virtually the same as any other liquid:
- Packing alcohol in your carry-on bag: passengers can bring alcohol through TSA’s security checkpoints as long as they are no larger than 3.4 oz (100ml) and fit within a quart-sized bag. This essentially limits your options to mini bottles only (more on this in a sec).
- Packing alcohol in your checked luggage: TSA has a few tiered requirements that you need to be aware of based on the ABV percentage of your beverage.
- <24% ABV: TSA has not published any restrictions on beer, wine, and low-alcohol spirits
- 24-70% ABV: TSA places a 5-liter limit on spirits that fall into this ABV range so long as it is in its original, unopened retail packaging ( I have personally never had an opened bottle confiscated but your mileage may vary)
- >70% ABV: TSA does not permit high-proof spirits to be carried by passengers in their luggage
FAA Regulations for Consuming Alcohol on a Plane
So now that we have touched on whether or not you can bring alcohol with you on your trip & if your booze will make it past TSA’s scrutiny, we have to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations that cover the consumption of alcohol while on-board commercial flights.
Per Title 14 CFR 121.575: a) No person may drink any alcoholic beverage aboard an aircraft unless the certificate holder operating the aircraft has served that beverage to him.
Essentially, this means that it is illegal to sneak yourself a drink of alcohol that you brought onto an airline flight yourself. That same rule also requires that airline crew members report any violators directly to the FAA.
Technically speaking, there is a legal loophole: any alcohol that you bring onboard and is served to you by a flight attendant would satisfy this requirement. That said, it’s kind of a ridiculous request that I do not recommend attempting. I don’t know of any U.S.-based airline (with the lone exception of JetBlue) that explicitly permits FAs to comply with this request.
CBP Regulations for Transporting Alcohol
After If you are planning on coming back into the U.S. from an international route, you need to be aware that the Customs & Border Protection (CBP) currently allows up to 1 liter of alcohol per person duty-free when traveling back into the country so long as it satisfies these conditions:
- You are at least 21 years old
- It is intended exclusively for your personal use and not for sale
- It does not violate the laws of the state in which you arrive
- Total value is equal to or less than $800
Bringing in more than 1 liter of alcohol is allowed, but anything over the 1L limit will be subject to duty & U.S. Federal excise taxes. For example: if you bring back 3 liters of whiskey worth $200, the first liter would be duty-free and duties would be owed on the remaining 2 liters.
So does this mean I can bring alcohol on a plane?
Yes, you can bring alcohol on-board a plane in your carry-on bag (if packaged in bottles no larger than 100 ml) or in your checked luggage (as long as it’s not it’s not over 140 proof). When you do bring alcohol on a plane, just make sure you follow the above rules. Just don’t let it break & spill in the cargo hold!
How to fly with alcohol (and make sure it arrives safely)
Now that you are an expert in all the alcohol-related regulations, you are ready to throw some bottles in your bag & head to the airport. Those plastic mini bottles in your carry-on bag are virtually indestructible, but I would be heart-broken if I checked in a nice wine only to find it broken & spilled upon arrival. Here are my packing recommendations to ensure that your beer, wine, and spirits arrive intact at your destination.
Individually Wrap Bottles/Cans
Since commercial aircraft fly at such a high altitude, the cabin is pressurized (generally the equivalent of 5,000-8,000ft) to keep the aircraft comfortable for humans. The cargo hold on commercial planes is pressurized as well, but the temperature of this area (where your checked luggage & alcohol is stored) may be vastly different than what you experience in the cabin.
We recommend individually wrapping your beer cans & wine bottles when transporting them in your checked luggage. If one of your beers pops, hopefully the bag will protect the other contents of your bag.
This can be as simple as using Ziploc bags, or you can use the same reusable bottle bags that I use because they come with built-in bubble wrap.
Pad Your Bag
Just bagging up your cans & bottles helps protect your bag if they break, but how do you prevent them from breaking in the first place?
Wrap your alcohol in padded material & line additional padding along the edges of your bag to provide impact resistance and to prevent jostling. Using your clothes to provide padding, as opposed to buying additional specialized gear, helps you implement this tip for free!
Buy Purpose-built Luggage
If you find yourself toting countless bottles of alcohol on most of your trips, consider buying protective luggage that is purpose-built for protecting fragile items. You want to look for a hard-sided luggage case with ample padding on the inside to soak up all sorts of bumps & drops.
There are many high-quality options to choose from, but I opted for a hard-sided NANUK 935 case (you can check out my in-depth review of this carry-on bag here).
Mail Your Alcohol
If you don’t have enough room in your checked luggage or just have too much to bring back, you always have the option of mailing your alcohol. Certain shipping companies have purpose-built bottle containers that can be used to ensure that your alcohol arrives safely.
