Passenger claims bottle of tequila in his luggage came back with ‘shot’ missing

Shocked traveller believes booze was a hit with baggage handlers

A United Airlines passenger has claimed that a bottle of tequila he packed in his checked luggage arrived opened and with “shots” gone.

Rich Mac shared a video on Twitter/X of the unsealed bottle of Teremana Reposado tequila with the neck of the bottle drained.

The caption read: “So an employee at United went in my luggage, crack open my bottle, took a shot & put it back. I should’ve known something was up when my s*** was unzipped smh.”

United replied: “Hi there. We’re sorry to see this has been your experience. We advise you to contact our Baggage team directly.”

Since 2006, a 100ml restriction for liquids in hand luggage has prevented large bottles of alcohol from travelling with passengers in the cabin.

In the UK, there are no restrictions on the number of unopened alcoholic beverages you can pack in checked luggage so long as the alcohol volume of the drink is below 24 per cent.

For bottles of alcohol between 24 and 70 per cent, airlines tend to enforce a five-litre limit – this does not apply to alcoholic drinks purchased in the airport duty-free shop that can travel in your cabin bag.

The Independent have contacted United Airlines for comment.

It’s not the first time United have gotten into trouble for mishandling checked luggage.

In March, a similar incident involving an expensive bottle of checked whisky saw the alcohol returned to a passenger by the American airline with a third of its contents missing.

Christopher Ambler found the £450 Glenmorangie “A Tale of Cake” Highland Single Malt with the seal clearly opened and the contents drained.

United Airlines offered Mr Ambler $200 in travel credit to compensate for the misdemeanour.

Another woman who flew with United tracked her lost luggage via an AirTag on a wild adventure from an apartment complex to McDonald’s in January of this year.