Methods and devices are disclosed for forwarding data packets during handover in a packet-switched wireless communications system, such as a 3GPP Long-Term Evolution/System Architecture Evolution system. In an exemplary method, a source base station node determines that handover of at least one radio bearer for a served user terminal to a target base station node is imminent. The source base station node classifies a plurality of data packets into two or more data flow classifications according to a transmission status for each data packet, a service requirement for each data packet, or both and selectively forwards one or more of the data packets to the target base station node based on the data flow classification for each data packet. For example, data packets associated with a reliable delivery service requirement may be forwarded while data packets associated with a maximum delay service requirement are not.