Duty Free purchases - part of carry on or in addition to?

As long as it is in a bag from the airport, it's usually accepted n addition to your carry on. Maybe the rules say differently, but in practise, I have never experienced problems nor heard of any one getting stopped for excess duty free purchase.

It depends on the airline and the gate agent. If you have 3 bags, and the flight is full, technically, the gate agent could make you check something or put one bag inside another. In practice, it's like everything else[INVALID]you'll find out at the gate.

This is where you pull out that jacket, etc., from your carry-on and wear/carry it while temporarily stuffing your extra goodies in your bag...until you get onto the plane. And thanks for stating you fly non-stop ;-)

Be careful with the liquids! I have seen them taken from the purchaser, even though they are marked "duty free" - depends on the airline I think.

I usually fly British Airways.

In regards to duty free liquids, even though your flight may be non-stop (London to Denver maybe in your case) procedures at the arriving airport may vary. Sometimes, even though you are not taking a connecting flight, after Immigration and Customs, you may still have to go through security....meaning your liquids will not make it. If you check a bag on the way back, you can stash the duty free liquids in your checked bag and be OK, but carry-on only may be an issue.

Huh? Not at any of MY airports...Security for what? The parking lots? I must be misunderstanding something.........You get off of the plane, get your checked baggage (if necessary), go to Customs, Passport Control, then they wave bye-bye as you walk out the front door...

At some US airports, the International arrival area does not have a separate exit isolated from the terminal. In this case you have to go through security. I believe I had to do this in Chicago (did not arrive at the International terminal) and I recall a couple other airports set up this way.

That shouldnt be a problem as I always fly back into Denver DIA, and there is no separate security as far as I remember...

In Atlanta, when you arrive, you have to go through security again before you leave the international terminal. We only had water bottles with us, but we had to dump 'em.

OK - Somebody's gonna have to explain to me the logic of this (realizing there may be NO logical explanation). I thought that perhaps some airports (older, undergoing renovations, very poorly designed) might have you go through baggage claim OUTSIDE security (like non-international terminals), then you'd be forced to go BACK through security in order to see the happy, smiling faces at Customs and Passport Control...that was the best scenario that I could come up with. So, nobody arriving at and departing the Atlanta airport can EVER bring liquids, bottles of wine, steak knives, etc., back into the USA?!?!? Atlanta residents can NEVER buy anything Duty Free?!?!?

You can have liquids, but only in checked bags in this case. When I make a connecting flight, at my port of entry, typically, I get off the plane, go though Passport control, then pick up any checked bags, then go through Customs, then proceed to a counter to re-check my bags, then through security (separate for international arrivals) and enter the main terminal area. In cases where there is no separate exit for International passengers who are at their final destination, they would need to re-check the bag and go through security as well, reclaiming their bag outside the secure zone. If there is a separate exit or terminal for International arrivals, then those at their final destination can take a separate exit, those with connecting flights still re-check their luggage, then either proceed through security right there, or in the case of the International Terminal in Chicago, leave the secure zone, take the tram to another terminal, and go through general security there.

You can have liquids that are purchased after security. I'm trying to recall where duty free was on my last flight (possibly after security). I don't think you should count on being able to load yourself down, however, planes still have limited cabin storage - which is why carry-on is limited............... There was a story (maybe a year ago) of someone wanting to carry on a fifth of vodka. Security told him he couldn't so he guzzled the whole bottle - and went to the hospital rather than catching his flight.

And the reason they do this is because you pick up your checked bags, go through customs, and recheck them, whether you're continuing on another flight or not. So you could technically get all kinds of things out of your checked bag that you're not supposed to have on a carry-on. The option you have would be to put whatever liquids you buy at duty-free in your checked bag when you're going through customs. If you don't have a checked bag, I think you're out of luck. Although I have seen people going through there with big boxes of rum coming back from Jamaica.

I always have a checked bag, but by the time one would make duty free purchases, its after security and checked bag is already..well...checked!

I'm suggesting to put it in your checked bag after you arrive at your destination, when you're going through customs. You may want to double-check with some of the posters on here from the Denver area to see what the setup is there. In Atlanta, you go through passport control, then pick up your bags to go through customs, and then put them back on a belt to either go to your next destination or to go to baggage claim. Then you go through security. If you have to go through security again in Denver, you could put it in your bag after going through customs and before putting it on the belt to go to baggage claim. But they do toss the bags around, be careful how you put it in there.

Paul and Maureen, you first talked about having to go through security to EXIT the airport, but in later posts you're talking about re-checking bags and continuing on...Of course, then you are (probably) in a different/domestic terminal - you start over with the security screening, etc.*********Later, Maureen you also add that you have to go through security to EXIT the airport ("and then put them back on a belt to either go to your next destination or to go to baggage claim. Then you go through security"). ATL REALLY makes everyone go through security to EXIT that airport??? WHY??? I can't wrap my head around that...[in case you hadn't noticed ;-)]

[[OK - stupid Helpline ate my post again; usually I (and many others here) 'Copy' each and every post to prevent such a thing from happening...and I slipped this one time]]*********So, in a nutshell, I've gathered on other blogs, etc., that basically ATL is ancient (I've always thought of it as being new...I've been flying too long LOL) and that in addition to many airports that require all arriving THEN CONNECTING passengers to claim, then re-check, their luggage and get rescreened (pretty common in the US) ATL's peculiar problem is that instead of dumping EXITING (from the airport) passengers into the lobby, they get dumped back into another (domestic) terminal, THEN they can exit through the usual baggage carousel way. I'd assume, the way TSA likes their signage and yelling LOL, that there'd be signs and hawkers announcing that another security and luggage check was on the way...(I think the people in TSA uniforms would be a tip-off). That would be your clue to put all 'contraband' into 'checked' luggage, even if you were like me and may not have checked anything up until this point. So, your confiscated water bottles were an oversight on your part, and not a big surprise. That's a relief. I know you fly lots, and I thought there was some weird 'gotcha' thing going on...They couldn't just announce as you're walking out the door that you couldn't take that Eiffel Tower snow globe to little Jenny...8^D I can exhale now LOL! And thanks again, Tami, for specifying that you are flying nonstop ;-) No problems for YOU!!! (and I maintain that DIA/DEN IS new - still)

ATL is in the process of designing a new international terminal, which, hopefully, will be able to dump us out by the baggage claim. As it is, the international terminal is at the end of the airport, so you have to take the train past all of the other terminals before getting to baggage claim and out of the airport. It is a bit silly that we have to go through security before we go home, but that's just how it is. When you fly in and out of the world's busiest airport, you get used to putting up with a lot of silliness.