Sounds like a fun and interesting pr:cool:ject!

got a new Pixel 10a. It still has one physical sim slot. I looked at esim.me as mentioned in the wiki. The single use 2 esim card was $28 but added $40+ for expedited shipping to the US related to tariffs. So beware.

I think you may be confused. The Pixel 10a natively supports 2 active SIMs, which can either be physical or eSIM (ie, 1 pSIM + 1 eSIM, or 2 eSIMs, can be active at the same time). It can also have a large number of inactive eSIMs (I'm suggesting there's a limit, but it's at least 8). There is absolutely no need to use esim.me, and it gains you nothing at all.

I’ve found eSIM really useful for travel. Being able to install a local data plan before landing and switch between lines without swapping physical SIMs is the biggest advantage for me. Ubigi, Airalo, and Nomad are all worth checking depending on the country.

Ubigi worked great for me in Japan, Airalo was just too spoty and unreliable there for me on Android. Wife was on Airalo with iphone and no issues. Airlalo support were helpful but ultimately I got a refund and did not have an issue with Ubigi.

i have a pixel 10a in my hand. It has a physical sim tray, and an opener pin came with it. I have not found any documentation supporting 2 esims on a pixel 10a. It really doesn't matter because I Run t Mo on my iPhone with international data and google fi on the pixel esim slot. So, all good on international coverage. We just have a lot of international stuff coming up in the next year. What I do like is the satellite capability on both phones. We are all in on expeditions, where it might help.

This is what google says
Learn more about eSIMs - Pixel Phone Help

From the page you linked:

"You may use 2 eSIM profiles at once if:
- You have a Pixel 7 or later phone.
- Your carrier allows this feature."

Those brands are so much more expensive but they have really low starting prices like $5 for 1 day or 1 GB.

I noticed Airalo is doing a lot of advertising now, including on TV so business must be good.

Yeah, totally agree on Ubigi and Nomad being underrated. Nomad especially is the one I reach for when I just want something boring that works, transparent pricing and no surprise fees.

On the price point though, Airalo's starting plans aren't actually the cheap end anymore. Saily (the NordVPN folks) starts around $1.79/GB in a lot of regions and throws in ad blocking, so if you're price-sensitive it's worth a look alongside the usual three. And yeah, the Airalo TV ads are wild, I think they've just got the biggest marketing budget in the category now.

I did a full 2026 rundown of the main ones if it's useful.

My T-Mobile service is better than ever for it's 5Gb high speed roaming data per line on my old ONE plan with ONE Plus Promo.

However, I just tested an old esim roaming service from at least 3 years ago called Roamless I have on my phone. Their attraction at that time was their data never expires. I was able to switch it on and my credit is still good. It allowed me to connect to Verizon and AT&T here in the states. My experiences around the world with it has been very favorable. In some locations it's per Gb is pricy, but when I was experimenting with it at first, they had sales that got my overall cost down to less than $1.20Gb in many locations. It was a great service for those who use IMS to keep their primary US phone number active if your carrier has free WiFi calling. The data usage for that service is minimal, so the per Gb pricing didn't matter much. The speeds they achieved with roaming carriers was always impressive also. I recall getting over 200Mbps on Speedtest in Spain and Italy also.

If you are an international traveler like me who is overseas a few times a year from 2-4 weeks at a time, it is something to consider. It allows access to the 2 other US carriers at home also, so it's a nice fallback for local use.

really interesting rundown.

although it looks like Jetpac now only throw in lounge access if your flight is delayed. otherwise it's a paid extra.

Good catch, you're right. That's the Smart Delay setup now, free lounge pass only kicks in if your registered flight is delayed 60+ min, otherwise it's a paid pass or one of their subscription tiers. Used to be more of a bundled perk so the post was running on old info. Just updated that section. Appreciate you flagging it.

I just signed up for Saily 30 day Europe regional plan 10GB for $30USD.

Hoping it will be enough for the 2 week visit ??:confused:

10GB over two weeks is ~700MB/day, which is plenty for maps, messaging, browsing and social. The only real data hogs are video streaming and photo/cloud backups, so lean on hotel/cafe WiFi for those and you'll likely finish with data to spare.
Tip: download your Google Maps area offline before you go. Have a great trip!

iPhone Maps also allows area downloads if you are on iOS.