Hello friends, I have some nice/good/rareish bottles of beer that I am wanting to take with me to California (I am flying). Now space or weight are not issues, but I really don't want them to burst or leak. Should I ship them ahead of time or just stuff them in suitcases- with padding? I feel pretty confident in my packing abilities, should I decide to mail them. The main beers are 750ml corked and caged numbers. If it makes any difference, it's a 2-hop flight so it'll be handled at 3 different airports. Saving money by putting them in a suitcase is a bonus I suppose, I'm just worried they'll get smashed. (put this in trading because it involves transporting- might be better off in general?)
They'll be fine given sufficient padding, especially since they're 750s. Basically pack them in your luggage as you would if you were shipping beer and weren't using a shipper. Alternatively, buy a wine check.
I'd go luggage too. I suppose it's a toss-up which will get rougher handling: a box on a multi-day trip or a piece of luggage swapped between planes a few times, but I've never had any issues with packing bottles well in my luggage (including am multi-hop trip back from Europe).
I just flew from Florida to California a couple weeks ago with a connecting flight and had no problems with 5 bombers in one suitcase. Just bubble wrap the crap out of them and go. Did it on the way back as well with much rarer bottles and I felt comfortable with it.
I pack beer in my suitcase a lot, just bubble wrap them as if you were shipping them in a trade and put them in a backpack inside suitcase to keep snug.
Zip lock bags, socks, then wrap them with shirts. I have done all this the. Stuffed them in boots as well. No issue
The first time I put them in luggage I used bubble wrap and whatnot, but since then have not. The new preferred method for me is just wrapping them in t-shirts or sweatshirts. Done this probably five times with no issues. I was even over the weight limit once and had to throw them in my buddy's snowboard bag and everything was perfectly fine, even bouncing off snowboards and being in a fairly thin bag.
Definitely in luggage. I've flown with an array of beer in my luggage many, many times, and have yet to lose a bottle, but to be extra safe the last couple of years I've been using Wine Diapers, which both add padding around the bottles and protect the surrounding clothes if a bottle does leak.
Another vote for luggage. I've brought back home quite a few bottles and cans of all kinds of sizes, and some weren't even packed well due to my inexperience at the time. Even with that, I've never had one break.
