OK, you guys…I know there are, like, a bajillion phone chargers out there. I mean, Joe and I have used an Anker brand battery bank for years and it’s really great in terms of being able to recharge multiple times before having to be recharged itself…but it’s a little heavy to carry with us everywhere. And we even did a whole write up on the Fuel Rod brand of cell phone battery that they sell at Disney parks.…but unless you’re near a Fuel Rod kiosk to be able to switch out your dead Fuel Rod battery, you’re pretty much SOL in terms of recharging abilities. But my friend Shawn passed this along to me the other day and after checking it out, yeah, it’s got to be one of the best things out there for a fast and easy way to get some extra juice for you phone when you’re out and about and just need a quick charge from something that’s small and light and east to carry.
If you are lucky enough to be targeted for this offer and can take advantage of it, you’ll earn an easy 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
Last week, many Chase cardholders were reporting that they received an email offering 1,000 bonus points after making five payments with Apple Pay. So if you received one of these emails AND have an iPhone (or Apple Watch), it would only take five payments (of any value) in April to earn the points. You don’t even have to sign up for the offer; it’s automatically active for those who were targeted.
Here are the posts we saw last week, written by other travel bloggers, that we learned from, made us think or maybe chuckle a little bit. We hope you enjoy them, too!
Costco Visa is eliminating foreign transaction fees. As many cards don’t honor category bonuses outside the U.S., this may be a good card to use; it earns 3% back on restaurant and travel purchases worldwide.
Free ticket to Hong Kong Disneyland? If you are flying on Cathay Pacific and have a stopover in Hong Kong, they’ll spring for the entertainment.
AMEX improves Hilton Transfer Ratio. I’m not sure if I’d transfer AMEX Membership rewards to Hilton Honors, but the increase in value is always welcome.
Like this post? We have plenty more just like it and would love if you decided to hang around and clicked the button on this page to follow our blog and get emailed notifications of when we post (it’s usually just once or twice a day). Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
Technology marches forward every day. A device that was a “must have” last year is a relic today. I’ve shown what tech I used to bring with me, so I thought it would be interesting to see “what’s in my bag” when I go on a trip nowadays.
I’ll start out by saying that while I’d like to have the newest technology, I hardly ever do. If something works for me, I’m gonna keep using it. Case in point, I’m writing this from a 6 year old MacBook Air. When the battery stopped holding a charge, I replaced it…all it took was a $70 kit from Amazon and 15 minutes to install. At the same time, I also clean installed High Sierra OS. This computer is as “like new” as it’s ever going to be. I’m sure Apple would have preferred me to buy a new one but this works just fine to write this article, thank you very much.
I was just digging around in the darker corners of my hard drive and found copies of my packing lists from 2003 and 2005. I still use a version of this list to help me pack for trips even today, but it’s been updated significantly in the last 12-15 years.
I thought it would be enlightening to look back and see what items we felt were “travel necessities” back in the early 2000s. All that I ask is that you don’t judge me too harshly on this list (Note from Sharon…TOO LATE! I’m judging the fact that you travel a minimum of 6 times per year and STILL USE A FLIPPIN’ PACKING LIST….)
All good things (or not so good things) eventually must come to an end. We’ve been in a rocky, long term relationship with AT&T ever since getting the 1st generation iPhone, with which we have been on the “grandfathered, no longer available” iPhone unlimited data plan since Day One. We’ve always upgraded to the brand new iPhone when it was released, because it was an iPhone with the bigger GBs and the WiFi (like the person in this very filthy, NSFW video).
It’s been a long time since AT&T was the only game in town for iPhone owners and they’ve also recently changed their policy and no longer subsidize iPhone purchases (they’ll let you finance the full cost over 2 years with monthly payments, though. Big whoop). So for the first time ever, we held off getting the new iPhone last year and waited to see what options we had. When we got a letter from AT&T telling us they were going to raise the price for the lifetime unlimited data starting in March, that was the last straw. Included in that announcement was the disclaimer that we could cancel our contract, penalty free, within 60 days of the new charge showing up on our bill. Bingo! Time to go shopping for phone plans.
In looking at all the other providers that offer iPhone coverage, I’m currently the most interested in T-Mobile. I know they have the most competitive plan for people who travel internationally with their T-Moble One plan, and that’s important to us. I’ve been keeping tabs on One Mile at a Time, whose author recently posted about his changing from AT&T to T-Mobile. I’ve also heard very good things about Project Fi from Google but that would require us to switch to the Pixel phone, and that’s not happening.
Looking more into the T-Mobile One plan, the cost for unlimited calls, texts and data in the U.S. for two phones would be $100. We currently pay about $165 for two lines on AT&T after the corporate discount I get from my job. Seeing the price difference, I called AT&T to find out when I could leave my contract. The rep was very nice but didn’t understand what I was asking. She did tell me my plan was obsolete and I could change to an unlimited plan that AT&T offers. When I asked her the price, she said I could get both lines for $155 and use my phone as a hotspot. Um, no thanks.
Making the change to T-Mobile will be a big transition for us. Even more important than the $65/month price difference, it will totally transform the way we travel internationally. Up until now, we’ve had to extensively plan our travels overseas to make sure we’d have internet coverage. Back in the day, circa 2009 or so, that included buying a totally overpriced international data plan from AT&T. For 1 month of the international plan, we’d have to pay over $100 and even for all that, we got very little data (we could only use one phone and had just enough data to load a Google map if we were horribly lost or to upload a picture or two to Facebook. Forget about browsing or downloading emails).
More recently, when we traveled to Australia in 2014, I purchased a SIM for our old, unlocked iPhones at the airport when we landed. This allowed us to have several GB of data usage while we were there. When we traveled on to Japan during that same trip, I had to arrange to have a data SIM and a hotspot delivered to our hotel so we could have internet (you can’t get a SIM for phone in Japan unless you live there). We then had to send it back from the airport before we left, in the prepaid envelope that was supplied.
We’ve always been so happy that the SIMs or data plan worked and we could use our our phones overseas!
Even in 2016, for our trip to London and Salzburg, I had to buy a SIM card from eBay from Three, a UK phone company, and then purchase the time online through a third party before we left. Figuring all this out took plenty of time, as well as the help from other travelers on the FlyerTalk boards. Luckily, this SIM also included roaming in Austria, so I could use the same card for our whole trip.
Switching to T-Mobile will be such a game changer for us:
With the T-Mobile ONE™ plan, you can enjoy unlimited data and texting in 140+ countries and destinations—all at no extra cost.
So this means we can travel to any of the 140 countries included on the plan and just turn on our phone when we land. The data is only 3G but that’s still enough to load a Google map, download email or get information on which train we are supposed to get on. The time and worry saved in arranging to have internet when we land is priceless, moreso when you’re suffering jet lag and all you want to do is go to sleep.
We’re still working out the logistics since T-Mobile is no longer offering the trade in program on iPhones. We’ll have to see if we can unlock our phone early or wait until later on in the year, when our contract ends, to switch. Good thing we don’t have any international travel planned for this year.
Have you or someone you know used a T-Mobile One phone overseas? How good is the data coverage?
(UPDATE! It’s about 6 months later. After many discussions with AT&T [so many of their customer service people are clueless], we did wind up unlocking our phones and going with T-Mobile. AT&T charged us a penalty for breaking our contract but T-Mobile reimbursed us for what the penalty was. We love paying $65 less per month for cell service and can hardly wait to use our phones the next time we go overseas!)
Like this post? We have plenty more just like it and would love if you decided to hang around and clicked the button on the top of this page to follow our blog and get emailed notifications of when we post (it’s usually just once or twice a day). Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
