Airalo: eSIM for travel & data

I was pleasantly surprised how convenient Airalo’s services are. I could purchase the service before I travel, very easy to install and activate, the process are mostly automated. Their apps (Airalo) is a very tested, and useful in the installation process, it had capabilities to test your device for compatibility, there’s little you have to do. One of the requirement is that your cellphone MUST have eSIM. Once oversea I was able to start using it, coordinating and communicating with hotel and other booking services without running the airport hunting for a cellular service provider in multiple countries. I am very happy with the Regional Asia package, save me a lot of headaches and money. Airalo has 3 packages, country, region and worldwide specific to meet all travelers’ needs. Airalo has a built in services for monitoring your data usage and it also gives you the ability to added or purchase more data and extend services. It is so wonderful and thoughtful design to meet my traveling needs. I am so happy with it’s services. It spared me many unnecessary headaches once I reach my destination, like running around airport hunting for free WiFi (unsecured) and also looking for cellular service provider to buy SIM card. This is where another headache can start when you install the Sim chip and also keeping track of your primary SIM card. Your date here now lies with your home service provider, did they unlock your phone so that you can use another service provider. You activation depends to having an unlocked phone. If it is lock, you got to figure out how to unlock it yourself. The local sale staff don’t have that information. Wish you Good luck or just be lucky, get Airalo. I hope this helps. Thanks

As an early adopter and huge advocate of Airalo, I thought it was finally time to share my thoughts. Compared to when the app first came out, it is much less buggy and works more seamlessly. I would say in 2023, 5/7 times data works and 3/7 times data works flawlessly or well. The customer service team used to be amazing and tight knit a year ago, now it’s very slow and difficult to receive help. They return to you a week or more later with an attitude when you no longer need their help and just want a refund because your E-sim completely would not work (most people only vacation for that long or at least need help within that period. I’m not going to wait a over week to access my 1-3 gb of data). Obviously, this process is something that has limitations based on your phone and isn’t an easy feat to start with but I definitely don’t rely only on Airalo anymore, T-Mobile or Google Fi provide strong alternatives. The prices can be a bit steep compared to local plans when you look at buying more than 5 gb of data but it offers convenience. They have a lot of options for countries but would love to see more options per country. This app at the time revolutionized things, now it’s just an average offering on the marketplace. Definitely disappointed in how things have been trending recently. Still use this app when in a pinch but it often doesn’t work as I expect and I hope it turns around soon. Keep in mind it does not work if you have a network locked phone.

I bought a new iPhone SE last fall and my physical sim from my old phone was fighting with an eSIM that I must have downloaded from my carrier so I had no phone service. I went to my service provider to find out what was wrong and they reinstalled the eSIM and told me to wait 24 hours for it to become active. 24 hours later there was no change. I ended up removing my SIM card and I now had a phone that worked. That got me interested in eSIMs since I saw ads about using them in other countries. I had a trip to Australia and New Zealand coming up but still wasn’t sure they would work. None of my traveling friends used them. After being in Australia for 5 days living on public WiFi and trying to do Geocaching Adventure Labs I decided $14 wasn’t too much to lose so when I got to New Zealand I signed up and downloaded my first eSIM. It installed right away and after turning a few things on or off I was ready to go. When we got back to Australia for a few days I bought the Australian eSIM which I should have done right away. I was traveling with 4 other people and became the go between since I was the only one connected. I told them next time we take a trip we will all have an eSIm. I have a trip to Switzerland coming up and my husband will be getting a new iPhone so he can have an eSIM too and be connected.