If you've traveled over the past year you have probably seen someone having to surrender a bottle of shampoo or some other liquid due to the rules about carrying liquids on planes. But pity poor Neil Grant, southern region general manager with Foster's Australia, who
recently had to surrender bottles of a 1980 and an '82 Penfold's Grange, treasures worth a couple of thousand dollars. Grant was going to conferences in Scotland and Ireland and pulled the precious vintages from his personal cellar. At the final security check he ran into a woman who informed him the bottles would be destroyed because he could not take them on board. He argued that people from Emirates airlines were willing to find his checked baggage and put the wine in there but she refused. He also offered to open them and share them with everyone around. Finally, rather than just throw them whole into the trash, he smashed them. The best part of the article for me is that Grant was man enough to admit he was close to tears. To quote an old song, you would cry too, if it happened to you.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
B Jan 3rd 2008 8:30AM
Why didn't he just change his flight? A couple of thousand dollars sounds like a good reason to spend a couple hundred more on a flight bump. Travel security can only restrict you from boarding a flight, they can't prevent you from voluntarily taking a later flight while you place items in your checked luggage.
Sounds like it was all a stupid waste to me.
Passengers Only Jan 3rd 2008 10:20AM
I don't mean to toot my own horn (maybe I do), but we sell a ton of FAA Approved wine carriers to enthusiasts in the know.
They come in 3, 6 and 12 bottle versions.
http://www.passengersonly.com/catalog/six-bottle-wheeled-wine-safe
I've heard horror stories from people trying to take expensive bottles on flights.