zippy the pinhead

A good friend is taking his wife to Europe in a month or so. He's not on Flyertalk but he is a Verizon customer. They're flying in to London and then to Rome, where they will do a cruise for a couple of weeks that eventually ends up somewhere in Spain. The return flight is from London as well.

IME renting a MiFi device can be good, but I've never been to Europe, so I can't help him. Would it be possible to rent a MiFi device, say at LHR, which would work throughout their trip? Or would they be better off paying Verizon for a travelpass?

gfunkdave

You can probably rent a mifi device, but the cheapest option will be to get a local SIM card. Check the Pan European and UK SIM threads for current details. Last time I was in the UK (2012) I got a 3 SIM that cost something like £20 for unlimited data for 30 days, including some kind of European roaming ability.

Easiest is just to pay Verizon for the Travelpass.

Analise

I went to 2 Verizon stores to verify that calls made within the UK using the Verizon Travel Pass would be included in the $10/24 hour period. In both stores, I heard "Yes, they should."

Should? I told the customer service people that our domestic plan included unlimited calls within the US; the UK was not included. The agents said they know and that the $10 fee "should" include all calls made within UK.

If I can't get verification from Verizon employees, where do I get it?

ajGoes

This is something you'll have to call to confirm.

TWA884

It worked for me in Mexico, France and Portugal. It worked for my sister in France and Israel. There is no reason it shouldn't work for you.

If you insist on talking to someone knowledgeable at Verizon, call their global support number, 908-559-4899.

Bandicoot

The TravelPass FAQ on the Verizon site says that the flat per-day fee covers calls to the US from the TravelPass country you're in, or calls to the TravelPass country you're in. So if you're in the UK, calls to other numbers within the UK should be covered by minutes from your domestic plan.

I can confirm that this is how TravelPass worked for me in India. A few calls I made to Indian phone numbers (mobile and landline) did not result in any additional charges beyond the $10 daily fee.

Note that to actually call any non-US number you will need to first enable international calling on your phone through Verizon.

Also, to address a question raised earlier, the TravelPass fee only kicks in when the phone actually uses data, call time, or text messages. No fee is incurred if the phone is simply turned on in airplane mode or wi-fi only. With the number of apps that use background data on a typical smartphone you can be sure you'll be charged because of data use the minute you turn on cellular data service, though, even if you don't get any calls. You could turn off data and leave the phone on for text messages and calls, although of course then you're sort of at the mercy of anyone who may decide to call you at any point.

IMO, this all gets to be a bit of a nuisance to manage and not cost-effective for more than a few days' travel. My solution was to switch to Google Fi for longer trips, and tether my Verizon phone to the Google Fi phone if I needed access to any apps that I simply could not just move to and use on the other phone (e.g., WhatsApp).

Analise

I called Verizon's global assist customer service (or whatever they call themselves) and NO ONE told me that. In fact the agent emailed me this while we were on the phone:


No mention of enabling international calling.

TWA884

Not needed in my experience.

Analise

I just contacted Verizon; iPhones are already enabled for international calling.

Bandicoot

Possibly this depends on the type of phone or details of the Verizon account. For my phone I see an option on the web site to enable or disable calling international (i.e., non-US) numbers. I've always had it set, but I assume the default may be off for some customers.

TWA884

That may be true for dialing international numbers from the United States, not for dialing locals numbers while traveling abroad while using the TravelPass plan.

aquamarinesteph

I have the latest version of an iPhone (until the new ones come out soon). You do have to change some settings on your iPhone to make it work overseas for Travel Pass. (No settings changes necessary for Canada.)

I know this because I had three separate Verizon reps give me three separate and conflicting sets of directions for how to make this happen. It was a lot of fun figuring this out (yes, that is sarcasm), but once I mastered the changes it worked quite well.

Analise

Did you have to change the phone from CDMA to GSM? Even more so, are the directions for the SE I pasted above correct?

Bandicoot

Thanks for the clarification. I haven't yet traveled with TravelPass and without the international calling option turned on, but it's good to know it's not necessary.

aquamarinesteph

Yes. Although in my experience, you do not need to power the device off/on for the changes to take effect. If you experience any difficulties, though, turning it off/on may just do the trick.