I’m not much of a traveler, so I’m pretty ignorant. I understand what duty free is, but I don’t understand the logistics.

Specifically, this: I am planning a vacation to Punta Cana in October. We will fly from San Francisco to Miami to Punta Cana. Return trip is reversed but same places.

Will I have an opportunity to purchase something duty free, like perhaps a nice scotch? If so, is it actually a good savings? And if so, at which airport and in which direction do I purchase?


Thanks for educating my ignorant bum.

Duty free means no import duties. You buy at the departing airport, on the plane, or at the arriving airport, and you have to show your boarding pass. The item is placed in a sealed bag that gets it through customs. If you have a connecting flight all rules apply, so in the case of a liquor bottle, you cannot carry it on and have to get it into your checked luggage.

Since the US has very low import duties, you don't save much relative to US costs. You don't have to pay sales tax, but things are usually retail price with no discount. I have not found it to save much for much of anything, liquor or cosmetics.

Now, it's a lot different in Asia - where those exact same products cost twice as much locally. Duty free saves about 1/2 the cost so Asians love duty free shopping. Chinese might fly to Incheon Airpot in South Korea just for the shopping - they have the biggest duty free section in the world.

I only shop duty free to buy things for women I know in Asia. The administrative assistants in China would often ask me to get something they knew was at the arrival airport duty free for them as a favor, which they would pay for. If it was a personal friend and a gift, generally buying it at any store here, if I could get a discount was better than duty free. Swaovski crystal is an example, twice the US list price in Asia, but here you could get a discount from list so it's less than 1/2 the Asia price.

Duty Free shops are interesting, if you know what you're looking at for. Just make sure you're familiar with pricing of certain products. Make sure you have that currency converter app handy or, get familiar with the rates.

For alcohol, you'll buy the item at the shop, if purchasing from an airport, the cashier will ask for your passport and boarding ticket. They'll record all the info and get on with the transaction; your alcohol purchases will go into a sealed 'tamper-proof' bag and it'll be escorted to the gate, waiting for you. Upon boarding, and after you've been checked-in (usually somewhere on the jet-bridge) a person with all the duty-free purchases will be there waiting, you show them your receipt, and they hand you your purchases. You then frantically jam your purchase into your carry-on and continue onto the plane.

Make sure to check US customs regs about bringing alcohol/spirits from the DR, certain countries have greater allowances than others.

Duty free shopping means you don't pay the taxes that are normally paid by the locals where you are buying the item. So they make sure you are on a flight out, then they make sure the product you bought will leave with you. The few times I've done this, a person from the store will accompany you all the way to the gate and hand the product to you. The airlines also offer you duty-free shopping in the air.

I do believe you are obligated to inform customs if you bought items overseas and brought back and you're suppose to pay any import duty for bringing it into the US. There may be a threshold amount that triggers the reporting duty - it'll be on the customs ticket that you fill in just before you land.

In Europe, you don't have to buy at the duty free shops. You can buy whatever it is you want outside of the airport and save your receipts. Then, at the airport, there's a desk where you submit your receipts and they refund you the VAT in cash or by check. (I forget.)

So if I wanted to peruse scotch selections for use upon returning home to CA I would want to shop in Punta Cana before boarding my flight to Miami? Or shop
In Miami before boarding my flight for San Francisco?

Let’s say I bought a bottle of something in Miami before boarding the plane.... doesn’t it have to go in my checked luggage? But I don’t have access to my checked luggage if it is being transferred from plane to plane.

I’m sorry if these are dumb questions, but I’ve never travelled internationally besides a cruise from Long Beach to Mexico.