Not sure who FlexiRoam is, but comparing their cheaper eSIM plans to Airlao, pricing is identical.

Airalo was good in that it could be easily purchased and activated before arriving in Japan, and very easy app refill. Ubigi was the same as well.

For those interested in Roamless, I finally registered today due to a Black Friday promo. They're still not likely to be the best rate compared to a local eSIM carrier if you're planning heavy usage in a standard timeframe (like 7 days).
However, I think they shine in either low-medium usage or longer timeframes or a lot of travel between countries.

As someone who always buys bigger GB plans and then ends up not using it all so the extra GB expires, the non-expiring validity Roamless has is a big bonus for me.

The Black Friday promo is pretty simple (new users only) - Load $20, get total of $40 in credit:
1. $1.25 free for registering (this is standard)
2. Black Friday special: $10 bonus credit for putting in a referral code before you load money for the 1st time (must load minimum $10) - normally this is a $3 bonus. This DOES stack with the below coupon.
3. Additional $3.75 free for adding a coupon code, such as 5DOLLARS. Their coupons do not stack with other coupons, they do stack with referral though. In all my searching and contacting CS, there is no better coupon than the $3.75 (which they call $5 because of the $1.25 you already get). You don't need to load money to get this.
4. Additional $5 bonus if you load $20+.

So to get maximum benefit, you sign up, put in referral code in the promo code area, then put in 5DOLLARS in the promo code area, and then load $20, and you'll end up with $40 in credit ($20 of which was free).
Alternatively, if you load $0, you'll have $5 total free credit. If you load only $10, you'll have $25 total credit ($15 of which was free).

I'm not sure if putting my referral code directly here is allowed but you can PM me or anyone else in this thread who mentioned they use Roamless and I'm sure we'd all appreciate and send you our codes.

Has anyone bought an eSIM in Australia?

Apparently their carriers do convert physical SIMs to eSIMs and they have a very competitive prepaid market, often giving dozens of gigs for $20 or less.

But that's for physical SIM packs that you can get at their supermarket and other retail chains, where they have weekly sales.

My issue is my iPad Pro and iPhone are both eSIM only so I can't use physical SIM cards any more and if I have to install it in order to activate, I wouldn't be able to do it with either device. Plus even if you are able to activate, it may take some time to switch it to eSIM. The carriers have mobile apps but they're not available on the US iOS App Store, except My Telstra app.

Boost Mobile is an MVNO which runs on the Telstra network and they let you order eSIMs om their site:

https://boost.com.au/pages/prepaid-plans

Presumably they will email you a QR code, not require you to install their app? The other issue is, will that website even take US credit cards.

My trip isn't until the end of January so it would be good to know if anyone has used eSIMs from Australian carriers or MVNOs.

The Airalo and other global eSIM MVNO's simply aren't competitive price-wise for Australia.

this page has some info

https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Australia

generally if their app/website supports Apple pay, then credit card addresses are usually not a problem

see that note about phone compatibility, australia is like att/Verizon whitelisting
"WARNING for overseas devices (especially tourists)"

Hmm, interesting but I want to use my iPad and hotspot off that.

They will have a lot of visitors who are using phones purchased overseas which are roaming on Australian networks. Most of them will not buy Australian SIMs.

Fortunately prepaid data is really affordable over there especially on their weekly sales so if it doesn't work, then it wouldn't be a lot of money.

Is E Sim worth it over the dual physical SIM prepaid sim bought for a short period?

“Worth it” is a subjective question and answer. I purchase an eSIM before my trips. I activate before or on arrival while clearing customs. We purchased a last minute trip to Iceland when visiting NY since SWF has a discount airline to Iceland.

If you have a dual physical sim phone, you can order a 2nd physical sim before or on arrival. I haven’t owned a dual physical sim phone since 2020.

You might check with your US carrier and see if they have any free or cheap phones available on your plan. In the past 2 years I have received 5 free Android phones from T-Mobile. The latest being a pretty nice Motorola Razr+ 2023. It is a dual sim (Card & esim) foldable that is my current roaming hotspot. It serves several devices at once with hotspot data from my roaming source. That eliminates the need for switching SIM cards to use more than one roaming device. It’s also nice to provide WiFi service for traveling companions who have free WiFi calling on their plans.

I love the idea of travel eSIMs but since almost none of them have phone call capability how does one make a local call abroad for free? Especially if a traveler needs to call airline customer service or even calls hotels or restaurants or just need to make local calls for any other reason.

If you're from the US, I'd say Google Voice. You can use it over data while abroad. It will give you calls and texts to the US for free (airline customer service etc). Calls to other countries (hotels, restaurants, other things local to where you're traveling) are pretty competitive but not free. No international texting though, you'll need Whatsapp or whatever is big in that country.

But there are other solutions too

ّI do use Google Voice though it required a VPN that may or may not work. I know there are some apps where these calls can be made for very cheap but wanted to see if there were any cheap solutions.

I thought to ask too after seeing a travel YouTuber who's from Sweden and was calling QR's number on his phone for customer service while he was stranded in Kuwait and really needed to change his flight asap. It's possible he might've called a free US number or maybe called an international number using a competitive rate.

I know there aren't typically a lot of situations where a local number might need to be called but I'd like to know the quickest way to do it just in case.

Forgot to mention I have a Three UK PAYG sim with voice/SMS but I'd like to find an eSim substitute for it. I used to have it on a small cheap phone to use it as a hotspot but I don't want to carry two phones and worry about charging two devices. I saw that Three UK PAYG eSims are available now though I wonder if my own sim of theirs and number can be converted to an eSim whenever I visit the UK again and visit a store. That's been a good service I've used for 5 years now in Europe with free data roaming in EU countries and even free local calls. The data packs are also so much cheaper than services such as Airalo.

I am still testing Roamless on my current trip. It has voice service available at different rates depending upon the country called. As an example, calling Kuwait is $.06 Mobile, $.07 landline a minute. I am in Costa Rica now and the pricing is $.03-$.10 a minute. Data rates however are huge for Roamless in both countries at $14.45 per Gb! Compare this to $2.45 per Gb in Europe for example. They also have promotions that can lower this price substantially. My cost per Gb for Europe is currently at $1.14 due to coupon offers.

For my current needs, I see Roamless as a great option for data in some locations such as Europe, Australia, and other popular spots. Additionally, it has value as a voice option for low rates and no credit expiration.

Thanks for the tip! And yeah it's been ridiculous seeing how much data packages cost in some countries. I haven't managed to try different sims around the world aside from the Three UK sim which has free roaming in almost all of Europe (though who knows for how long). Meanwhile in the GCC I always have a Bahraini and Saudi number I haven't been to the other GCC countries in a long time but it's always an ordeal getting cheap connectivity in them. Even when local telecom companies have roaming offers for the GCC they're still super expensive to where even Airalo and others don't have decent regional esims that cover the region for a reasonable cost/GB. Individual country eSims aren't poorly priced though.

Yeah, I use a Three UK SIM around the EU and other supported Go Roam countries and supplement with an eSIM or Solis/Skyroam elsewhere. The only reason I keep it active (but don't go way out of my way to do so) is that I'm on a legacy prepaid PAYG plan. My understanding is that the terms are less favorable to roaming post-Brexit on Three UK prepaid PAYG service.

Same here my sim is from 2019 though I wonder if I visit the UK and ask for it to be converted to an eSIM if it would cost me my legacy/grandfathered service. I don’t top it up for more than a year but when I do it’s back to normal with the number and all. I think in other circumstances the number as a whole would probably disconnect from lack of activity.