Icmeler Online Holiday Forum & Reviews - Turkey

We came back into Gatwick on an Onur air flight last sunday and for the first time ever...from Dalaman or anywhere else....we got stopped at customs.He asked us whether we'd been to Turkey before , which we have many times, and asked if we knew the allowances for cigarettes.We didnt have any as we dont smoke.However on the flight the hostess was doing a sales pitch trying to get people to buy the packs with 1000 sticks...as she said..in!Only 200 cigs per person is allowed.The guy at customs said lots of people returning from Turkey are bringing more in.We were fine and he didnt even look at our bags when we told him no cigs just 2 litres vodka.So be careful.....!

Lucky they didnt stop me 2 weeks ago with my 12 cartons,they dont sell the 1,000 sticks on way out to Turkey,only on return to UK!!.

We got stopped last year but we had nothing at all, one woman on another desk must have had 4000 fags or more...she didnt look happy!

the year before my brother bought back some golden virginia....DO NOT BUY IN RESORT!! unless you smoke used horse straw on a regular basis!! it smelt terrible, i dread to think what it was

Chris wrote:Lucky they didnt stop me 2 weeks ago with my 12 cartons,they dont sell the 1,000 sticks on way out to Turkey,only on return to UK!!.

I bought 1000 on the flight into Bodrum last OCT.( Onur air ),and will do the same tonight.

We got stopped in manchester three years ago so no extra cigs for us. Once clocked you can't take the chance, pity.

Three Years ago, we were browsing around Duty Free at Dalaman, and a guy working there came up and was trying to sell us cigs (we dont smoke) and booze.

I asked him what the limits were back to the UK, and he said "No Limit" you can take as much back as you want.

I thought he was talking a load of rot becuase I recalled a rep saying something the year before about taking back limits and don't go over etc.

Anyway, we bought a litre each and some choccies etc, got back into Birmingham Airport where there was a massive sign saying how much you are allowed to bring back, and low and behold there were limits.

I was not amused, even though I didn't buy loads, I would not have fancied getting on the wrong side of a latex gloved customs official.

I was stopped last October and in May this year, they took me into a side room and scanned my bags and asked me questions about how many cigarettes I had bought and who they were for, it was the same customs officer in May that questioned me last October, I was so shocked at being stopped the first time I remembered his face as he questioned me. I said to him" you stopped me last time" and he grinned. As I was leaving I said to him see you in July

We seen it all at Edinburgh airport on Thursday night. Whilst waiting for the luggage to appear this woman was standing stuffing packets of cigarettes down her tracky bottoms! I was dying to see how she walked but our luggage came first. But she needn't have bothered because there were no customs staff there.

We were stopped in May at Glasgow airport, and all our luggage was scanned we were fine.

However there was a guy behind us who had obviously just bought them either on the plane or at Dalaman (1000 cigarettes), customs guy asked him how many were in the party and there were only 4, not sure what happened as we were done and had to move on.

I wouldn't want to chance it, not worth the hassle. Although don't think it helped that there were 3 flights that had arrived within minutes of each other including a flight from America!

Andrea

Hi

This link gives you the upto date duty free allowance per person that came into force 1st December 2008 travelling from a non EU country

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_173022



Steve