UK duty free

freya18th

We are traveling to Italy in September from Manchester will we be able to buy duty free sprits and cigarettes on the way out at the airport.

~Beanie~

Yes you can.

Moto2

No,

There is no duty free within the EU

Caz3121

You cannot buy duty free cigarettes on the way out as you need to be flying outside the EU to be able to purchase

InsideInsurance

You cannot buy duty free cigarettes

Some alcohol, normally 70cl bottles, are sold at the same price to all passengers but legally duty has been paid if you travel inside the EU and the retailer takes the hit. Larger bottles tend to have different prices depending on if you are traveling outside the EU or not.

maman

I wouldn't guarantee buying them in all EU airports either or sometimes not much of a range. What you can do is buy them at Italian local prices in Italian shops (currently about 5-6 euros a pack I believe) and you can buy more or less what you want to bring home for your own use.

Pollycat

You will be able to buy cigarettes and alcohol but you will not pay duty free prices as you are travelling inside the EU.

As InsideInsurance says, beware of different prices for the same things.
When travelling outside the EU, prices on alcohol can be significantly cheaper.
This is one of the times that people travelling outside EU will have to show their boarding cards to prove where they are flying to be eligible for non-EU prices.

Hobsons_Choice

We flew back from Rome last year. Duty Free wouldn't sell me cigarettes, but there was a small shop at the airport where I could buy them. They'd sold out of the most popular British ciggies though!! Prices from the shop were cheaper than UK.

InsideInsurance

Hobsons_Choice wrote: »

We flew back from Rome last year. Duty Free wouldn't sell me cigarettes

Its a bit of a pain for them, they have to log the sale different, they have to charge a different price, and they should mark the boxes to say that duty has actually been paid so that you dont have a problem when coming into the UK.

A local shop that doesnt sell at duty free prices so only one price to deal with, boxes predone with duty paid logo/sticker and only one way of accounting for them

[Deleted User]

It might be cheaper to buy cigarettes in Italy than in 'duty free' - because there is no such duty free within the EU.

However, i think there's also no limit on the amount of cigarettes you can buy 'for personal use' from within EU countries (e.g. Italy). Apparently a pack of 20 will cost between 4 and 5.50 euros (e.g. at most £4)

trolleyrun

If you want alcohol, go to a supermarket when you get to Italy. It'll probably be cheaper than in any airport shop.