Nerine

My OH is going back to the UK soon for a short trip and went to pay the balance on his flight yesterday.

The travel agent told him not to buy duty free booze or perfume during his 3 hr stop over at Hong Kong as he won't be allowed to take it into the UK in his cabin luggage...is this true? Surely if he doesn't go out of the secure area he'll be ok!

walla

Probably because Hong Kong isn't in the EU. He'll be able to take some in but only small amounts.

http://www.heathrow-airport-guide.co.uk/dutyfree.html

Pollyana

Its like Singapore, its not actually the taking it into the UK, its the going through the security check to board at Hong Kong. The "no liquid" rule applies at most airports even if you are only transitting.

See here for the Hong Kong airport rules -
http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/t...ty.htm#nav_3_3

donovandenese

we bought duty free in sydney in Jan, the guy in duty free checked our tickets and said it was fine to buy based on our route. We changed planes in transit in singapore and there was no problem at all carrying the duty free through the security boarding the plane (as long as its in a sealed bag from Sydney duty free). we then had to change again in amsterdam. when trying to board the plane to the UK our duty free was confiscated - the new EU rules are that you can only board a plane at an EU airport with duty free bought in the EU. He said it would have been fine if we had flown direct from singapore to the UK.
it was annoying as we could have taken it in our checked in bags no problem. we got a receipt for the confiscated items and wrote to sydney duty free as we were told they should have known the rules. to their credit the refunded the cost of the duty free to our bank account immediately

Nerine

Thanks everybody that's really useful. He said he's going to buy it in Brissy and hopefully there shouldn't be any problems.