Duty Free for UK travel

Atlantic Dawn

I recall back in the late 80's doing foot passenger trips to Holyhead, it was dirt cheap something like £10/£15 return for 2 adults and 2 kids. What the ferry companies did was give you a voucher when you boarded which allowed you to purchase 200 cigarettes and 1 litre of spirits, these were given to each adult passenger. What was happening was when the ferry took to the sea you had 'entrepreneurs' going around asking passengers not using there's could they have them, they then bought up as much cigarettes and alcohol and hoped they wouldn't be stopped coming back in to Dublin.

Here's a video from RTE Archives, lads with their tops off sunbathing on the deck of the B+I ferry, a different time I suppose...

Litre bottles of Irish whiskey for £7.30 a bottle, are a fraction of the supermarket price as well as cigarettes at 66p for a packet of twenty.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2018/0711/977911-duty-free-day-trippers/

Capt'n Midnight

Fann Linn wrote: »

Ferry companies lost major revenue went duty free was abolished.

That's what killed off the hovercraft in the channel

silver2020

I'm going to put a dampener on this.

"Duty Free" will operate between UK & Ireland, but unfortunately it will no longer be "Tax Free" as vat is now added to all airport / ship purchases.

So the savings will literally be the duty element. (€11-€12 on spirits, €3 on wine)

Considering the airport shops like their margins due to the high cost of operation, you'll find the saving versus the regular offers you get in supermarkets will be fairly small, so only real advantage will be the huge choice.

cavanman..

My aunt went back to England last Sunday. She got 200 benson’s for e55 and a litre of Smirnoff for e13 (purchased at Dublin airport).

Quackster

silver2020 wrote: »

I'm going to put a dampener on this.

"Duty Free" will operate between UK & Ireland, but unfortunately it will no longer be "Tax Free" as vat is now added to all airport / ship purchases.

So the savings will literally be the duty element. (€11-€12 on spirits, €3 on wine)

Considering the airport shops like their margins due to the high cost of operation, you'll find the saving versus the regular offers you get in supermarkets will be fairly small, so only real advantage will be the huge choice.

What the UK government has abolished is the selling of goods, including clothes & electronics, VAT-free in airports & ports to overseas travellers on the basis that the savings were not being passed on to consumers and the goods were being bought by UK residents for re-import back into the UK.

Granted, this means VAT now also applies on duty-free goods (alcohol & tobacco) bought when traveling from the UK but when you compared the duty-free & duty-paid prices of these products, it was clear that the VAT saving was only being partially passed on or not at all. There is no impact whatsoever on goods purchased when travelling to the UK (or elsewhere from Ireland).

Also worth noting that the UK government has dramatically increased duty-free allowances for travellers to GB (including from the Republic of Ireland). The new allowances are:

Alcohol
42 litres of beer
18 litres of still wine
4 litres of spirits OR 9 litres of sparkling wine, fortified wine or any alcoholic beverage less than 22% ABV

Tobacco
200 cigarettes OR
100 cigarillos OR
50 cigars OR
250g tobacco OR
200 sticks of tobacco for heating
or any proportional combination of the above

Any other goods
£390 (or £270 if travelling by private plane or boat).
The beer allowance of 42 litres will equate to three crates of 568ml (pint) cans. If passengers prefer to buy 330ml bottles of beer this would equate to five crates.

Doodah7

silver2020 wrote: »

I'm going to put a dampener on this.

"Duty Free" will operate between UK & Ireland, but unfortunately it will no longer be "Tax Free" as vat is now added to all airport / ship purchases.

So the savings will literally be the duty element. (€11-€12 on spirits, €3 on wine)

Considering the airport shops like their margins due to the high cost of operation, you'll find the saving versus the regular offers you get in supermarkets will be fairly small, so only real advantage will be the huge choice.

But there has been a distinction between EU and non-EU passengers in airports all along when purchasing spirits and cigarettes. It is the case that rather than just USA, Switzerland etc. -bound passengers being able to benefit, it now includes UK passengers also.

mydiscworld

cavanman.. wrote: »

My aunt went back to England last Sunday. She got 200 benson’s for e55 and a litre of Smirnoff for e13 (purchased at Dublin airport).

55 duty free in Ireland?

I get them for my mother on work trips and it's 53 duty paid in Luxembourg airport...

mydiscworld

So if you are travelling via UK from one EU country to another, and have 2 boarding passes, you can get duty free cigarettes but not alcohol.

Cigarettes: Provide UK bound boarding pass in EU airport you depart from.

Doesn't work for alcohol as required to go into a sealed bag if connecting. And if connecting they use your final destination, so no duty free.

whiterebel

mydiscworld wrote: »

55 duty free in Ireland?

I get them for my mother on work trips and it's 53 duty paid in Luxembourg airport...

Just shows the amount of tax and duty is paid here.

Darc19

mydiscworld wrote: »

55 duty free in Ireland?

I get them for my mother on work trips and it's 53 duty paid in Luxembourg airport...

https://dfs.lu/fr/shop/tabac
Generally Luxembourg, austria, Italy, Poland and Spain are about €5 for a pack of 20

It would entice you to take a day trip

Asus X540L

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

The ferry also reminded me of the old days of UK duty free. One journey I made was so rough that nobody visited the duty free shop because everyone was up top getting seasick. I took one look in the shop and the noise of bottles clanging made me run out and back up on deck.

No offense but that sounds like you're a bit of a fanny.

Darc19

Asus X540L wrote: »

No offense but that sounds like you're a bit of a fanny.

No offense, but I would suspect that you are under the age of 50

I remember those journeys from dunlaoghaire to holyhead and on a bad day, the puke was everywhere and trying to stay standing was near impossible.

But feck it, it was worth it

This was before ships had stabilising systems.

TheDriver

I'm closing this one down as it's not a bargain alert but rather a point of law now