Anyone Considering Cancelling Travel

[Montecfo]

Yes, have heard good things about Google Fi for international travel.

 

[ElizabethT]

We switched to T-Mobile a few years ago when they offered a great promotion for 55+ households. It saved us close to $100/month vs Verizon, and the coverage and costs when traveling are also better. We used to pay $10/day for our Verizon plan while out of the Continental US, but that got expensive on long trips!

May I ask the exact amount you pay for your T Mobile 55+ plan, inclusive of all taxes, fees, etc?

We are looking to switch to the $70 monthly plan for two in order to have coverage in Europe, but only if it doesn't come in higher than our current StraightTalk plan of $36 per line, $72 for two, all in.

 

[braumeister]

May I ask the exact amount you pay for your T Mobile 55+ plan, inclusive of all taxes, fees, etc?

We are looking to switch to the $70 monthly plan for two in order to have coverage in Europe, but only if it doesn't come in higher than our current StraightTalk plan of $36 per line, $72 for two, all in.

T-Mobile's prices include all taxes and fees, so the quoted price is what you pay. We've been on their 55+ plan for several years and love it. When your plane lands in another country you immediately get a text "Welcome to _____" and you're good to go. No roaming charges. Data speeds are a bit lower but perfectly fine.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I have T-Mobile too. It works in some places better than others.
Convenient though and it's the reason why I've stayed with them, though reception in my home isn't that great.

We were the same with reception in the home 5 years ago. T-Mobile gave us a repeater (no charge) for the house, it has been great ever since. I just went to a T-Mobile store and they arranged the rest. It came in the mail, I installed it myself. It consists of 2 parts, each placed at opposite corners of the house. It has a digital readout that shows signal strength for minor adjustments.

 

[explanade]

May I ask the exact amount you pay for your T Mobile 55+ plan, inclusive of all taxes, fees, etc?

We are looking to switch to the $70 monthly plan for two in order to have coverage in Europe, but only if it doesn't come in higher than our current StraightTalk plan of $36 per line, $72 for two, all in.

T-Mobile's prices include all taxes and fees, so the quoted price is what you pay. We've been on their 55+ plan for several years and love it. When your plane lands in another country you immediately get a text "Welcome to _____" and you're good to go. No roaming charges. Data speeds are a bit lower but perfectly fine.

Every time I take a trip overseas, my T-Mobile bill is a couple dollars more, even though most of the time I'm not making calls.

But I get calls, which I don't pick up nor even check the voice mail.

I don't bother to dispute with T-Mobile.

 

[explanade]

We were the same with reception in the home 5 years ago. T-Mobile gave us a repeater (no charge) for the house, it has been great ever since. I just went to a T-Mobile store and they arranged the rest. It came in the mail, I installed it myself. It consists of 2 parts, each placed at opposite corners of the house. It has a digital readout that shows signal strength for minor adjustments.

Did you have to put a deposit down so that you have to return the repeaters?

Does the repeater boost 5G signals?

A half block down, there is 5G UC signal, with speeds of several hundred megabits per second down.

In my house, at most I've seen maybe 20-25 Mbps.

 

[braumeister]

Every time I take a trip overseas, my T-Mobile bill is a couple dollars more, even though most of the time I'm not making calls.

But I get calls, which I don't pick up nor even check the voice mail.

I don't bother to dispute with T-Mobile.

Those are charges from the foreign phone company, and not T-Mobile charges. I frequently get those in Europe, but rarely more than a buck or two. The highest bill of that nature I've ever had was three years ago in Sweden, about $7.00 over the normal monthly charge. But I had at least 30 minutes of phone calls during that trip, so hardly an issue. Data and texts are always free.

 

[ElizabethT]

T-Mobile's prices include all taxes and fees, so the quoted price is what you pay. We've been on their 55+ plan for several years and love it. When your plane lands in another country you immediately get a text "Welcome to _____" and you're good to go. No roaming charges. Data speeds are a bit lower but perfectly fine.

That is exactly the endorsement I was looking for, thank you so much.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Did you have to put a deposit down so that you have to return the repeaters?

Does the repeater boost 5G signals?

A half block down, there is 5G UC signal, with speeds of several hundred megabits per second down.

In my house, at most I've seen maybe 20-25 Mbps.

No deposit. What is 5G ? My phone is a Samsung S7

 

[brett]

We cancelled travel to a family wedding earlier in the month. We were aware that there would be numerous unvaccinated people at the wedding. As it turned out others declined for the same reason.

Our travel plans are changing based on how some countries are handling covid and what their published covid stats are.

We are not interested in cruising at this point in time. We are looking at a snowbird trip to Panama and an extended spring trip to Greece and Cyprus.

We are watching the numbers, speaking with contacts in those countries. We will not book any air until a week or so prior to departure.

April/May is as far out as we are thinking for the time being. If it works out we will start looking at an extended fall trip.

Hopefully we can get back to spending winters in Thailand/Vietnam/Australia by the time winter 2023 rolls around.

 

[Koolau]

We cancelled travel to a family wedding earlier in the month. We were aware that there would be numerous unvaccinated people at the wedding. As it turned out others declined for the same reason.

Yep. Weddings and funerals seem to be the "super-spreaders" locally. We're sending cards only for now, though fully vaxed. YMMV

 

[USGrant1962]

Yes and no for cancelling travel.

We just returned from Turks and Caicos. Testing was a pain but otherwise no problems. Planes going there were only 1/3 to 2/3 full, returning were full but I think that was because American cancelled flights and rebooked on other airlines. Immigration at ATL was deserted so that was nice. At the resort masks were required indoors (until you were seated in the restaurants) and compliance was very good.

OTOH, we had a trip booked to Grenada in January that we cancelled. Per recent Trip Advisor reviews that resort is severely understaffed, and more importantly their main dive boat has been docked since June awaiting parts for repairs. Presumably both issues are Covid-driven.

 

[Scuba]

May I ask the exact amount you pay for your T Mobile 55+ plan, inclusive of all taxes, fees, etc?



We are looking to switch to the $70 monthly plan for two in order to have coverage in Europe, but only if it doesn't come in higher than our current StraightTalk plan of $36 per line, $72 for two, all in.

We pay $121/month for 4 lines, unlimited data. We have two cells, my iPad, and my Apple Watch on the plan. We were paying over $200/month for a Verizon plan with only 3 lines.

 

[audreyh1]

T-Mobile's prices include all taxes and fees, so the quoted price is what you pay. We've been on their 55+ plan for several years and love it. When your plane lands in another country you immediately get a text "Welcome to _____" and you're good to go. No roaming charges. Data speeds are a bit lower but perfectly fine.

Our experience too have used for many years - totally seamless!. T-mobile is wonderful in Europe and now we can text world wide no charges. We’ve had trips with no extra charges because we used wifi calling for US numbers overseas which is free, and with European family we text or use FaceTime.

Early this year we upgraded to T-mobile senior rate on their Magenta Max plan (no added taxes or fees) which ended up with us saving money on our original plan because they also provide Netflix.

We would have paid an extra $10 per line month for high speed hotspot and several other enhancements anyway, so the Netflix deal clinched it.

 

[Montecfo]

Love all the great wireless plan data. Bottom line for international travellers seems to be to use TMobile...or possibly Google Fi.

Anyway, not cancelling travel but ramping it up.

Returned from British Columbia/Washington/Oregon about 10 days ago. Heading out in a couple of days on a car trip to Texas to see family friends and see some football and basketball games.

But we remain very cautious with distancing and masking.

Glad to see Covid is waning nationally but taking seriously. Getting booster today.

 

[ElizabethT]

Not possible to quote all the T Mobile responses above, so a big 'Thank you!' and a note that we are heading there this morning to make the switch!

Edit: And a reminder that my question stemmed from concern about Germany's current requirement that visitors have mobile phone ability for COVID contact tracing while in the country.

 

[explanade]

T-Mobile works okay for some light browsing and email.

But anything like streaming or download podcasts won't work.

Also sometimes Google maps don't load too well.

So realistic expectations when using free international data.

 

[braumeister]

T-Mobile works okay for some light browsing and email.

But anything like streaming or download podcasts won't work.

Also sometimes Google maps don't load too well.

So realistic expectations when using free international data.

That all depends on the individual. I'm not into streaming when I travel so no knowledge about that. I've never had a problem in any country with web data; it's plenty fast enough for me, and I've used it in 15 European and four South American countries.

And it's so easy to download Google maps to your phone in advance for all the areas where you'll be that this shouldn't be an issue for anyone.

 

[flyingaway]

That all depends on the individual. I'm not into streaming when I travel so no knowledge about that. I've never had a problem in any country with web data; it's plenty fast enough for me, and I've used it in 15 European and four South American countries.

And it's so easy to download Google maps to your phone in advance for all the areas where you'll be that this shouldn't be an issue for anyone.

You can do streaming at hotels using their WIFI.

 

[flyingaway]

Not possible to quote all the T Mobile responses above, so a big 'Thank you!' and a note that we are heading there this morning to make the switch!

Edit: And a reminder that my question stemmed from concern about Germany's current requirement that visitors have mobile phone ability for COVID contact tracing while in the country.

I can confirm T-Mobile data plan worked their a few years ago. I have a feeling that T-Mobile is actually a Germany company.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

… I have a feeling that T-Mobile is actually a Germany company.

Indeed, for the most part… As of September, Deutsche Telekom holds a roughly 43% stake in T-Mobile US and controls a majority of its voting shares.

 

[flyingaway]

Love all the great wireless plan data. Bottom line for international travellers seems to be to use TMobile...or possibly Google Fi.

Anyway, not cancelling travel but ramping it up.

Returned from British Columbia/Washington/Oregon about 10 days ago. Heading out in a couple of days on a car trip to Texas to see family friends and see some football and basketball games.

But we remain very cautious with distancing and masking.

Glad to see Covid is waning nationally but taking seriously. Getting booster today.

There are only a few countries that T-Mobile data plan did not work when I was in travel, notably Vietnam, Andorra, Morocco, and possibly Myanmar (could not remember clearly). Before you travel, just check the T-Mobile web page to see if they cover that particular country.

 

[explanade]

That all depends on the individual. I'm not into streaming when I travel so no knowledge about that. I've never had a problem in any country with web data; it's plenty fast enough for me, and I've used it in 15 European and four South American countries.

And it's so easy to download Google maps to your phone in advance for all the areas where you'll be that this shouldn't be an issue for anyone.

Sure good enough but it can vary depending on which area you're in.

This forum has BTD threads all the time. For $20-30, you can get much faster data for your 2-3 week vacation.

In the scheme of things not even a big splurge.

You can do streaming at hotels using their WIFI.

Not always. I've actually been in hotels where the same time of the morning and the same time at night, the speed degrades a lot because everyone staying at the hotel start using their devices.

Or in a lot of cases, the speed is managed at a few megabits at the most, to share limited speeds.

 

[Chuckanut]

There are only a few countries that T-Mobile data plan did not work when I was in travel, notably Vietnam, Andorra, Morocco, and possibly Myanmar (could not remember clearly). Before you travel, just check the T-Mobile web page to see if they cover that particular country.

Andorra would be a problem for me. I want to visit all the mini-kingdoms sometime in the next 3-5 years.

 

[braumeister]

Andorra used to be excluded but has now rejoined Europe. T-Mobile works there for voice, text, and data (2G).