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How to smuggle a Macbook pro to Denmark.

L

Lasse86b

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 10, 2007
11
0
Hi all.

I've been reading this forum with great interest for MONTHS and months now, and I've finally had a friend by me a 2.4 Ghz macbook pro in New York which he's going to bring home to me here in Denmark on saturday - I saved roughly 700 $. and they're apparently not sould out of the 2.4hgz matte on 5th avenue!

My question is this: He's bought two, and he's travelling with his father and sister. I suggested him that it was easiest to bring it along with him in the hand luggage. I.e. one in his own, and one in his sister's for example, as I don't believe that they do anything in check-in than ask you to pull it up for an x-ray scan while checking for fluids and explosives in. And then he's free to bring in along with him. Am I right in this?

Or should he put both in the suitcase, wrap it in clothes to avoid damage in transport, and just do it the easy way' so to speak? - my friend reckons that they scan all luggage going in under the plane, so he's more keen on the hand luggage thng.

So in short - I know for sure that you WON'T get your hand luggage checked when arriving to Denmark, so the important thing is to just get it on board the plane, then he's 'safe' so to speak.

So should he have it (un-boxed of course) in his hand luggage or just packed nicely away in his luggage under the plain? Denmark is a european country btw;-)

Thanks very much in advance, I'm off to work. Counting the days till saturday.
 
You'll probably want to take it on your carry on luggage, that'd be the way that damage is least likely to be caused en route. And you say that they don't check carry on, so even more reason to do it that way. What they do for flights within the US is just check your carry on luggage in a security checkpoint to see if there are any weapons, etc. I've never flown internationally so I'm not sure about that though, I would assume it'd be the same way though.

mike dunx said:
what's the deal with macbooks in denmark? are they not allowed or what?
Click to expand...

The OP is most likely talking about being taxed for buying something in the US and flying it to a different country.
 
iBookG4user said:
The OP is most likely talking about being taxed for buying something in the US and flying it to a different country.
Click to expand...

you don't need two consecutive posts.

to the op, i suggest you wrap it in a balloon and swallow it. be careful, though. if the balloon bursts, you're toast. :)
 
siurpeeman said:
to the op, i suggest you wrap it in a balloon and swallow it. be careful, though. if the balloon bursts, you're toast. :)
Click to expand...

Best answer yet. But also consider the condition of the MacBook. Ewww.

Carry-on seems the way to go. All luggage, checked or carried, is x-rayed. With carry-on, they required laptops to be removed from your luggage and scanned separately. I'm not sure what TSA does if they find one in your checked luggage. I expect they take the luggage aside, open it, remove the laptop, scan it separately, and repack. My guess is you don't want that.
 
This has been brought up a couple times. Most people say just mail the boxes to yourself and pack the laptop with you, acting like you had it all the time.

It could save you the space in the luggage if you needed it.
 
simple ...
ask him to mail the empy box to Denmark.
send separately the proff of purchase in an enveloppe.
tell him to carry the laptop normally in hand luggage, they'll scan it but that's it. if you're really paranoid you can ask him to start up the machine and put some random files on it to make it look like it' used.

everything should go just fine :D
 
Take the MacBook and all electrical plugs out of the box and put it in your carry-on. You might even want to spend a bit extra and get a laptop carrying case to put it in. Put the empty box in your stowed luggage.

In other words, make it look like you're a regular Joe carrying your trusty laptop. That's it. I've carried a bit of (dual voltage!) electrical equipment -- external HDs, PDA, hubs, D-SLR -- back to Germany this way.

If the prices here were relatively on par with the US, I'd buy here in the EU every time. But it's like they've never heard of rebates. And the VAT markup makes me want to weep. So until they adopt a bit more customer- and consumer-friendly approach to things, I'd advise anyone to use a US shopping opportunity, especially on these big-price items like portable electronics.
 
siurpeeman said:
you don't need two consecutive posts.

to the op, i suggest you wrap it in a balloon and swallow it. be careful, though. if the balloon bursts, you're toast. :)
Click to expand...

Lol, or you could go the prison rules route and store it up the rectum. :p
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A469a Safari/419.3)
SMM said:
Obey the friggin law. There is no reason to put one's person in jeopardy for something this piddley.
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It's not a matter of law, it's cost effective. Who doesn't want to save some money? Import duty (tax) sucks. (which was already paid at the time of purchase, by the way. EU import duty rates are quite high and only tacked on to the tax already paid in the US) What you think is piddly may not be to someone else. For instance, I think your opinion is piddly.


To the OP:

All you (they) do is place the laptop(s) in their carry-on luggage, do not baggage check them, those people are brutal and thefts have occurred. They do x-ray in both scenarios but it's no big deal, it won't hurt them. Have the original (and empty) packaging sent by post or placed into your checked baggage. Voila.

People bring laptops with them all the time, I don't think anyone will raise an eyebrow.

Even though it's slightly paranoid - It can't hurt to have them place a few photos or something on the machines to appear used though. ;)

good luck and congrats on the new machine.
 
Hand luggage!!!

Think about how bad it would be if they lost the suitcase and couldn't find it again.


And good luck with it. As a fellow Dane I now how expensive the MPB is over here. Unfortunately I didn't have any friends going to or coming back to DK from US when I needed mine
 
I would always carry the laptop with me on planes and not put in checked luggages. They throw them around a lot and there might be a maximum of how much they are reliable for in case of loss or damage.
 
Lasse86b said:
...........................

So in short - I know for sure that you WON'T get your hand luggage checked when arriving to Denmark, so the important thing is to just get it on board the plane, then he's 'safe' so to speak.
..................................
Click to expand...

european customs randomly check handluggage when you leave the airport gate area. happened to me a few times. in that case you're toast.

best thing is to have a permanent residence in USA then you don't have to pay because they assume you're taking the MBP back to the USA.

alternatively remove all stickers/labels/boxes that make it appear new. make it dirty in a way that it looks used. ship the power supply by mail because that shows that it is a US model. bring a european reciet for a MBP from a friend with you to show that it is a model bought in denmark (but there you are committing fraud and a few hundred bucks in savings isn't worth that.)

good luck.

and don't forget that you have 2 years warranty in europe but only one year in US. that accounts for a few hunderd dollar price difference.
 
Actually, the price difference can be accounted for by European VAT, which unlike sales taxes in the US, are included in the retail price, and (especially) the very weak US dollar. Between the two, I can certainly understand the incentive for Europeans to shop in the US. In general, I don't see any issues with Europeans buying Apple products here -- just be sure you know, understand and don't break any import laws in the process. You might even want to find out what duties you'd have to pay on the Mac if you declared it at customs.
 
Hand luggage all the way

Carry that puppy...
Airline slang for baggage handlers is "Throwers":eek:


:)
 
Never, ever, ever, ever (cant stress this enough) even consider checking anything that you care about, or that is valueable over $100. I know a thrower (baggage handler) and they regularly mess with peoples luggage for fun. If they even thought you had a computer in there it would be luggage baseball (or cricket for you euros) with your suitcase as a bat. Also things of value can tend to fall out of a suitcase when that pesky zipper breaks. Read the print when you check your bag you are assuming liablity for everything over $100. Im assuming you wont get that as a check either but as a nice little voucher that you will only be able to use on full fares.
 
Well a couple things. The computers have to be declared when they go through customs, but these people probably won't have problems until they try to return WITHOUT the computers. They flew into the country with them, and that's fine. No taxes, etc, are assessed for you bringing a computer with you from wherever you're from.

But trying to leave the country WITHOUT it is a problem.

Now, if you don't declare the items, then you better not have them in your hand luggage when you get to danish customs.

And have him boot the computers up at home, install some software, etc. They make you boot up computers at American security to prove they're functional computers. If it's never been booted before, that's suspicious. Customs might make him boot it up as well.

Also, you had flown there you could get the sales tax refunded, but they can't since they're residents. So you pay sales tax and potentially also a hefty duty if this doesn't play out.
 
feelthefire said:
. They make you boot up computers at American security to prove they're functional computers.
Click to expand...

Once upon a time they did. Maybe more frequent travelers have a different experience, I haven't been asked to demonstrate a working laptop for airport at security in years. They just want it out of your luggage and in a tray by itself for x-ray.

Interesting point about Danish customs. If they require that you declare items such as these when you leave Denmark then you could well have a problem bringing one back.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Best answer yet. But also consider the condition of the MacBook. Ewww.

Carry-on seems the way to go. All luggage, checked or carried, is x-rayed. With carry-on, they required laptops to be removed from your luggage and scanned separately. I'm not sure what TSA does if they find one in your checked luggage. I expect they take the luggage aside, open it, remove the laptop, scan it separately, and repack. My guess is you don't want that.
Click to expand...

This is correct. Although, I was not elated the last time I travel as they insist on scanning my MacBook separately with putting it on the plastic tray and not allowing me to put the sleevecover underneath it to protect it from scratches.

"I'm pretty sure it'll scratch. So I'll put this underneath it."
"No, no, you can't do that. It won't scratch."

Yes it did. I was seriously pissed.
 
Zegna said:
This is correct. Although, I was not elated the last time I travel as they insist on scanning my MacBook separately with putting it on the plastic tray and not allowing me to put the sleevecover underneath it to protect it from scratches.

"I'm pretty sure it'll scratch. So I'll put this underneath it."
"No, no, you can't do that. It won't scratch."

Yes it did. I was seriously pissed.
Click to expand...


Computers are almost always scanned separately. They tell you to take computers out of their bags and be prepared to boot them up for the security dude and send them through in their own bin. However usually if you're smart you can take all the pieces out and get everything set up and into the bin before the guy tells you what to do.
 
feelthefire said:
Computers are almost always scanned separately. They tell you to take computers out of their bags and be prepared to boot them up for the security dude and send them through in their own bin. However usually if you're smart you can take all the pieces out and get everything set up and into the bin before the guy tells you what to do.
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand their need to scan it separately, and I did set up all the pieces by myself. But then they say that the sleevecover cannot be put between the tray and the MacBook, and that is what annoyed me.
 
iBlue said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A469a Safari/419.3)

It's not a matter of law, it's cost effective. Who doesn't want to save some money? Import duty (tax) sucks.......
Click to expand...

OF COURSE it's a matter of the law....since the law requires the purchase to be declared. You may not like the law, but it's still the law.

To the OP;
DON'T have him put it in his checked luggage.....too much of a risk of it being stolen or damaged
 
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