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What has changed since last trip pre-COVID… what worked well

Barcelona and points north and south.

A few things that eased the trip and/or are improved since last trip. I’ll first echo what many have said. I had never used Apple pay. Was nervous. Got it set up. As a result, did not use credit cards first 7 days of trip (only for tolls on highway). Apple Pay everywhere. Once I got over intimidation factor it was great and very easy Allowed me to leave credit cards in room. Just carried phone.

Paid $35 thru t mobile for ten days of using iPhone like at home. Phone served as GPS (a necessity on small coastal switchbacks), all reservations in my phone, audio guides, directions walking, deciding which subway stop to use and which was closest, restaurant options. Even great to call husband when he got lost to find him.

American Express primary car insurance. I’ve had it for years, and luckily never needed it, but husband was renting car (shift, which I can’t do). Two hours after renting car, we parked in a paylot across from a police station in broad daylight. Came back from beach/lunch to a badly damaged passenger side mirror. Cops said they would not take report. Lost a lot of time but AE helped us out.

Posted by
7799 posts

Isn’t Apple Pay handy? I really liked it, too, during my trip in June. It was especially handy to tap in & out of the London Tube & to pay at restaurants.

Posted by
42 posts

We are thinking of switching from Verizon to T-Mobile because of their reported international easy of use. I’m curious why you had to pay an extra $35 for ten days? The plans we’ve been looking at (55+ plans) all include unlimited text and data with $0.25 per minute calling. Are we missing something in the details?
Thanks for any enlightenment.

Posted by
14719 posts

I'm with Jean! I love ApplePay even though one of our local RS meet up group had to practically browbeat me to get me to download it a year ago. I LOVE it! So easy! I don't even take my purse into the grocery store here any more, lol, just my phone in my pocket.

Glad you had good luck with it and poo on the damaged mirror but glad AMEX helped out.

Posted by
294 posts

I’m also curious why you had to pay $35 for a T-Mobile plan.
Apple Pay on an Apple Watch is even easier to use. I used it all over the UK in June and last month on the VFR Tour. I never had to fumble for my phone.

Posted by
5846 posts

I’m also curious why you had to pay $35 for a T-Mobile plan.

Some T-Mobile plans offer 5gb of high-speed data internationally (after that, it is slow) and others have slow data.

You can pay $35 for 10 days or $50 for 30 days to upgrade to high-speed data or to purchase additional high-speed data.

Posted by
144 posts

We have a rather “economical” cell phone plan stateside :) and the international component is not part of it. For many folks it is built in. In any event, the coverage was very good.

Posted by
144 posts

I got so used to the simplicity and ease of Apple Pay that I hated reverting to needing to pulling out my credit card at many places upon return.

Posted by
1138 posts

I have had the T-mobile Magenta plan for nearly 10 years. You should double check, but this is the plan with the international seamless access and access terms cited above.

I have been very pleased. Used in Asia. Australia, New Zealand, multiple European destinations. No problems at all.

Posted by
42 posts

Thanks to all for the extra information on the T-Mobile service, I’ll look closer at the different plans.