Duty Free Alcohol into the UK

[crewmeal]

Recently I bought a litre of Malt Whisky at the duty free shop in Damascus for my trip home to Birmingham via CDG.

When I changed flights at CDG this nasty officious security woman took it off me and told me that I couldn't take it onboard the aircraft. 'Had I not heard the new rules about taking liquids into the UK' she asked. 'No I hadn't' was the reply 'not where I have been working'. She then went to inform me that if I had bought it at CDG I would have been allowed to take it onboard. I subsequently found this information to be incorrect and that no duty frees are allowed to be purchased for flights into the UK.

Like everything on this subject its as clear as mud. Would anyone like to define what you can and can't take into the UK from a duty free point of view? or is that it no more liqueur into the UK??

[BOAC]

I suspect you are getting (understandably) confused between Customs regs and security regs and I would guess this 'restriction' is based on the latter? In the UK you would not be allowed to take a bottle of whisky you had purchased in, say, Dubai, onto an aircraft at a UK airport as 'hand baggage'. If you had bought it in the UK dutyfree it would be ok, unless of course the flight is to the US - confusing, ain't it?:)

Drink it or pack it.:)

[Globaliser]

She then went to inform me that if I had bought it at CDG I would have been allowed to take it onboard. I subsequently found this information to be incorrect and that no duty frees are allowed to be purchased for flights into the UK.

Like everything on this subject its as clear as mud.One problem is that the rules are changing all the time. This is the current EZY guidance (http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Book/business_as_usual_18_aug_06.html):-From France:
Liquids are now allowed in hand baggage at all French airports, including Basel-Mulhouse.

easyJet advises passengers to take only one piece of hand baggage with maximum dimensions of 45 x 35 x 16cm, and all hand baggage will be checked at the gate or in the airbridge by security personnel.

Any articles bought in duty free shops will be placed in a transparent plastic bag which will be hermetically sealed – a list of items purchased will be sealed into the bag as well. Security staff at the gate or in the airbridge will screen these bags as well as other hand baggage before being handed back to passengers.But that's pretty new - it was different last week.

Maybe the security people ought to know, but I think one can forgive them if they're confused, too.

Officiousness, though: not good. (But friendliness is sometimes hard to convey in a foreign language.)