Spare cell phone? (anyone traveling with)

Well, there is a saying - 2 is 1, and 1 is none.

Or go into the local equivalent to a Best Buy and buy a burner phone even if you only use it on WiFi for WhatsApp

Yes, I carry my prior cellphone as a spare.

Next to my passport, my phone is the single most important thing I bring, with all my documents, tickets and reservations, plans in OneNote and my credit cards in Google Pay.

Instead of backup printouts, I carry the backup phone with everything duplicated and synched.

Especially if you've faced a malfunctioning or lost/stolen phone while abroad

Interestingly, my backup phone bricked when I went to use it on my last trip. So then I was down to 1 for the last several days.

Now I'm using the phone before that - which wasn't much older - as my backup!

I travel with my previous phone as a backup.
If something should happen to my current phone, the backup is virtually a clone.

the backup is virtually a clone.

Exactly.

I don't keep previous phones, but I have either my iPad or my laptop with me, which has everything that my iPhone does. Even if I didn't, I still don't think I would bring a backup phone. Anything I need I can get in the Cloud.

I can get at all my stuff in the cloud, but I rely heavily on Google Maps to get me around, and tickets on my phone to get me in to places that I've booked.

So I've become dependent on having a portable device with data.

Oddly, my physical VISA has become a backup for my credit card in Google Pay. Not so for my debit card which I still have to insert physically in most ATMs.

All pretty much the same as when I'm at home.

Chances of an iPhone to stop working are slim to nil, irrespective of the odd outlier in the 90 million that are sold yearly. I carry enough redundancy with my iPad when I travel.

Were the iPhone to go on the blink, I'd just make my way to the Apple Store or Apple Reseller and purchase a new one.

My second phone is my redundancy. Now that I'm retired, I don't have to bring my laptop. And I often don't bring my tablet.

No way I'm using a cellphone for everything - I'll use it to carry the days but nothing less than an iPad for everything else.

You may have a much more interesting "everything else* than I do! 😁

I've experienced a stolen iphone. Fortunately, the phone was recovered within a few hours but it was a sobering experience. Yes, losing your travel details, tickets, etc is bad but it is two factor authentication that is the real problem.

But, I can access what I need from the cloud on a new phone?

I'm sure you believe this but are you REALLY sure you can access icloud if you had to borrow or buy a new device? Go try it on a friends phone. Generally for the apple environment you need either another trusted device or your phone number as 2FA to access your icloud account. I could use my husband's iphone as a trusted device and I also have his number set up for 2FA, but traveling alone would be a different matter. Using his phone I could use find my and lock my phone. Traveling with your ipad or laptop gives you another trusted device, but without them you could not do anything unless you have some other backup system in place. You need to set up someone at home as a backup 2FA or as a "recovery contact" or generate a 28 digit "recovery code" to keep somewhere safe. Note- I have not had success setting up a recovery contact- I can set one up but it doesn't actually work to get a code. So test anything you think you have set up.

Even though I could access my Apple email, I use gmail as my primary email- the one that has all the ticket info, backup 2FA for my accounts, etc. I could not access this. Ironically before the trip I was reviewing my accounts and realized I had an old work phone number listed on my google account. I was deleting/shifting and then the website froze up and I forgot to go back and finish. In the process my husbands phone number was no longer listed as 2FA, only the stolen phone :( But wait- I know I had my icloud email set up as a "recovery email" on google! Guess what, that does not mean 2FA on the fly- it is for when you contact google for help once you have depleted the obvious phone numbers for 2FA and then that help page says because of security it will be "3-5 business days"

So if I didn't get my phone back, what would I have done? The solution I came up with was to buy a new iphone and then I could at least access apple cloud, rebuild my apps, have google maps, etc. But this would work only because I had access to a trusted device. How to access my gmail to get to everything else including saved and changed passwords. I was going to have to contact my dog sitter. Tell her where to find my laptop, give her my password (thankfully I trust her fully). Get her to go into gmail to add my husband's phone number for 2FA. It would have worked eventually but what a mess. Upon returning and looking further I realized that google lets you download 10 "backup codes" that you can print/save to give alternate access.

The lesson? Don't be complacent, look carefully into the security settings of whatever your primary environment/services are. Google "how to access xxxxx without my phone" or "without verification" and make sure you understand what you can and cannot do. Then ACTUALLY TRY IT on someone else's device. Go to the library and use their computer or try a friends phone. And recheck before every trip- software providers are notorious for making operational changes.

My iPhone doesn't work when overseas, unless I can use wifi.
I don't rely on my phone for checking in at the airport or storing reservations, etc. So, losing a phone would not be a speed bump for me on a trip overseas.

I’m with Mardee. My iPad Mini is my back up. I read on it daily in the Kindle app so it’s a necessity!!

I carry one cell phone and that's it.

Malfunctioning is a possibility but having it stolen, picked , etc is not going to happen. The trips over this summer of 9 weeks total in Europe I see that happening as overrated.

The last 2 European trips, I used my old phone as my primary phone. I got a local SIM with enough data for my travels (primarily for navigation) and used this phone for my main photos. I put my current USA phone on airplane mode and tucked it far into my backpack. I only used it for backup photo opportunities, connecting via WiFi and for copies of travel documents. The old phone worked fine, photos were great and was less prone to opportunity theft. When I returned to the USA, no difficulties in getting my current phone back on the USA phone network.

First I build a set of nested folders in google drive. One for each major city, tickets, docs, etc. I upload everything there. Then I share top level folder with wifes google account. On both phones i set the google drive option to "make file available offline" for all files. I usually sign up for Verizon 1 month international plan on my phone only. On wife's phone we have the Verizon single day international plan that only cuts in if the phone pings a tower. Last thing before we get on plane over ocean is turn on data roaming on my phone and put hers in airplane mode. If my phone gets lost, we can turn hers on removing airplane mode. She can use wifi in hotel at night and I can access all our important stuff and google maps during day when we are out. Has worked well for at least 5 trips. The offline option combined of google drive along with with data syncing really makes thing easier.

The last 2 European trips, I used my old phone as my primary phone.

I used to do the same, also so that I could stow my new, more expensive phone for safety. And I preferred the camera. I might go back to that because I still like that camera.

The more you bring, the greater the chance you'll lose something. Everything I need is on the cloud. If my phone breaks, or is stolen, get a substitute en route, or rely on hotel phones to communicate and PCs to print what Iq need.