I will have a layover at the airport in Newark this January. The last time that I bought liquids at an airport (it was a bottle of wine), and had a layover, they confiscated the bottle and told me I could not take it on board because it wasn't purchased at that airport (Amsterdam-Schipol).
It was still in the totally and completely sealed plastic security bag with the receipt from the airport that I had purchased it at that morning. The first airport looked at my boarding pass said NOTHING but not to open the bag until I got to my final destination in Chicago.
In order to avoid this happening again (because apparently it differs from airport to airport, I had no problems elsewhere in Europe), I was wondering if anyone could tell me if the Newark airport may have the same sort of policy or not? I would highly doubt it, but I was also highly surprised at it happening the last time.
Thanks for your help!
Verified answer
Are you coming from Europe to the US? My understanding is that TSA doesn't care if it's in the sealed bag or not, they will either ask you to check it through or to "surrender" it to them (ie, confiscate it), even if in the tamper-evident sealed duty-free bag, at EWR and any other US airport. If they do allow it, it's an exception to the rules which I wouldn't count on every (or even some) time.
In Europe, there is an intra-EU exemption which would allow you to transit with duty-free liquor/wine.
Newark has the same silly security rules as every other US airport.
If you're connecting from one domestic flight to another in the same terminal, you don't have to go through security again, so you should be OK. If you're connecting from international to domestic, you have to reclaim your bags for customs and recheck them, so you can stick the bottle of wine in your checked bag. (I realize this doesn't work if you don't have a checked bag.)
If you're changing terminals, you lose unless you check in a bag at the second terminal into which you can put your wine.
The duty on wine in the US is only 11 cents/bottle so duty free is no cheaper than anywhere else. If you want to buy some wine, buy it when you get there. I've found that even for harder stuff with higher taxes, as often as not I can find it cheaper in a local store than in the duty free.