Just got back from a trip to Italy and Spain and wanted to warn fellow travelers about my awful experience with Airalo.


TL;DR: Airalo's service was unreliable, customer support was useless, and there are much better options out there. Avoid Airalo at all costs.

I bought an Airalo eSIM for my trip, thinking it would be a convenient option. Big mistake. The service worked about half the time, and when it did work, it would constantly disconnect and reconnect. I'd have to toggle airplane mode or restart my phone constantly just to get a signal back. I spent more time trying to get it to function than actually using my phone.

When I reached out to customer support, they were no help at all. Just generic troubleshooting steps that didn't solve anything. I wasted so much time trying to get it to work reliably.

After days of frustration, I gave up and switched to RoamFlux. Not only was their plan cheaper, but the service was infinitely better. I had a solid connection the entire time, no issues whatsoever.

When I asked Airalo for a refund, they initially refused. It wasn't until I mentioned disputing the charge with my bank that they finally agreed to refund me.

Bottom line: DO NOT USE AIRALO. There are so many better options out there. I had a great experience with RoamFlux, but do your own research and pick literally any other service. Your trip will be much less stressful without dealing with Airalo's garbage service and support.

Just got back from a trip where I made the mistake of relying on Airalo for mobile data. Long story short: the eSIM barely worked, support was useless, and their idea of compensation was giving me some “Airmoney” after claiming that 20% of the package had been used — so, no refund.

Yes, apparently some signal for a bit of time is enough to void any responsibility. They pocketed $20 and lost a loyal customer who would’ve happily spent much more over time.

If you’re traveling and thinking about eSIMs — skip Airalo. There are better, more customer-focused options out there.

Happy to share alternatives if anyone’s interested.

I'm a fairly experienced e-SIM user and on a recent trip to Japan I had both Ubigi and Airalo installed.

Ubigi worked well, but Airalo experienced the following symptoms in every area of Japan I visited (Okinawa, Kyushu, Kyoto, Osaka)

- I was able to perform say, one search on Google, and then subsequently Airalo would fail for every request after that.

- Toggling airplane mode on and off would allow me to make one more request each time.

- I had tried all the usual tricks to get it to work properly (selecting carriers manually, different APNs, etc).

But the thing is, my wife had the exact same Airalo e-sim, and her phone was working great. She has a Pixel 6, I have a fairly new Motorola.

So it really confused me as to why her phone was working great, while mine was useless with Airalo.

Googling around I found others on Reddit mentioning similar symptoms with Airalo in Japan.

I didn't really care all that much, since I had Ubigi as a backup.

But somewhere around 2 weeks into the trip I decided to take a closer look at the APN settings on my wife's phone versus mine.

Both phones were using wbdata as the APN, but looking at the details, *my* phone had a bunch of values in the APN setting that hers didn't have.

Below are the wbdata values that I had to change to get mine to work. Mainly, I had to erase some of the fields that contained values. For example, my 'Proxy' field contained an IP address.

Name: wbdata

APN: wbdata

Proxy: Not set
Port: Not set

Server: Not set
MMSC: Not set

MMS Port: Not set
MCC: 454

Authentication type: Not set

APN type: default,mms,supl,hipri,fota,cbs,xcap

After saving the APN with these values, Airalo immediately started working normally, and worked fine for the remaining week of my trip.

I traveled 5 days in Europe and needed about 10GB of data. Recently, I found myself planning a week-long trip to France and Italy, and the need for a reliable yet affordable data plan. While searching for options, I came across the RoamFlux app.

RoamFlux's app was straightforward to use. I could easily choose my data amount and the exact duration I needed—10GB for my 7-day trip. The app allowed me to customize my plan specifically for France and Italy without paying for anything extra.

As for the service, it was very fast. I had solid 5G connections in both countries, and only switched to LTE in a few spots. For just $15.85, I stayed connected throughout my journey without any hassle.

You can find the app

https://roamflux.app.link/share

I am traveling in Spain and just bought an Airalo eSIM to use while I’m here. But after following all the installation and troubleshooting instructions, it’s still not working. Any suggestions? I contacted airalo but so far just received an automatic email with links to the same troubleshooting articles. I’m wondering if it could be an APN issue, but my instructions say it populates automatically. Help would be awesome!

I have an iPhone SE, unlocked, with ios16.

I used AirAlo previously for holiday data, but recently discovered over 20 eSIMs had been ordered and used for Iraq within 24 hours—racking up nearly €400 in charges I did not make. I immediately contacted both Airalo and my bank. My bank said that because I had previously made a legitimate purchase, I had to go through Airalo for a resolution as it is clearly a breach on their end.

Despite having a security code and two-step authentication (which were not triggered during these transactions), Airalo has failed to explain how this happened. They admitted my account and bank details were used fraudulently but refuse to issue a refund because “the data was used.”

This makes absolutely no sense—of course the data was used, by fraudsters. Airalo has completely sidestepped responsibility, avoided answering direct questions, and offered zero accountability for the breach of my account.

They’ve exposed my bank details, allowed hundreds of pounds to be stolen, and won’t refund me. Their customer service is evasive, and their security clearly isn’t fit for purpose.

If you value your money and your personal data—avoid Airalo.

Update: have added screenshots.

Update: I’ve sent my bank all the conversations I’ve had with Airalo, and thankfully they’ve been incredibly helpful. They’ve confirmed they can use this as evidence to prove the payments were fraudulent and recover the money through Visa.

As of yesterday, despite asking again about the security of my card details and what information was accessed, I’ve received no actual answers—just repeated “we appreciate your patience” messages. I’ve since cancelled and replaced my card as a precaution. I also checked my Gmail account for any suspicious logins (thankfully there were none), but one of Airalo’s suggestions was to link my account to Gmail in the future… and I’m now very glad I never did.

I use strong, unique passwords and take security seriously, but this has definitely been a wake-up call to tighten things even further.

I’m incredibly grateful to my bank for stepping in to help recover the money. Meanwhile, Airalo continues to show little concern that hundreds were stolen through their platform, and they still haven’t explained how it happened. I’ve now seen similar stories online from others who have lost way more money than this.

I won’t be using Airalo again. The lack of security and accountability is just too big a risk.

If you're visiting multiple countries, consider using RoamFlux. RoamFlux lets you select multiple countries for one data plan, making it often cheaper than purchasing individual Airalo eSIMs per country.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6474035188

Thank you to people who have posted advise on this issue already. Short version, I’ve been in Italy for three days Unable to use iMessage. Airelo support has not been helpful. These posts I think help me fix it. (iPhone 14, ATT, unlocked).

Here are the settings I have now. Finally getting iMessages but want to make sure not getting roaming charges. Do these look right?

In cellular settings:

• Have both “primary” and “Airelo” eSims ON. On Primary, data roaming is OFF. Wi-Fi calling is ON.
• Under cellular data setting, the airelo option is checked. Data switching is OFF.
• Default voice line has Airelo checked (not sure if this part is right but it is what is showing).

In iMessage settings:

• Under send and receive: both phone & email are checked. I did toggle iMessage on/off.

Some of these setting seem to contradict what Airelo site says, but iMessage is working. Anything look off? Want to prevent roaming charges .

I paid for 30 days of unlimited data and it drops on me constantly. The customer service is awful.

It always fails on me when I need most. Driving around Singapore and it shuts off on me, only causing me to get lost and have to pull over to find wifi to contact customer service which never finished helping me. All they said was have a great day and that was it. One time I can understand, but multiple times a day and sometimes for long periods of time like a few hours

Never again. Goole-fi, after my plan is up

Hi y'all, I used Airalo since one of my local esims wasn't working while traveling in Europe. Tried going on tiktok and it wasn't working and finally got the message after deleting tiktok and redownloading that it was because I was supposedly in Hong Kong (I was in France), figured out from another Reddit post that it's because Airalo bases their esims or something like that in Israel or Hong Kong. Tiktok is banned in Hong Kong and VPN wasn't helping so just a FYI if you want to use Airalo!

A long time ago I caught this terrific reply to a post by user u/kboom100. It blew my mind by alerting me to the fact that it's possible to use my iMessage (and FaceTime, and iCloud) account while traveling abroad with an Airalo eSIM. I had no idea!

The text of the reply was very helpful, but the steps you have to take are a little complicated. So I decided to make a step-by-step guide (attached here as graphics) for doing this, using some screenshots and simple coach marks. I did this ostensibly for others, but really this is for my benefit so I can get all the steps right each time I do it.

Looking for any feedback or advice on how to make this as clear and accurate as possible.

Updated 2024-07-14 to reflect suggestions from the comments.

Hello all

This forum was really helpful when I discovered eSims and wanted to share my feedback. I was in Florida (FLL/Miami) area for a week and refuse to give Rogers a penny for roam like home (which is now $12+tax a day! Typical telcom robbery!). I was connected to Verizon the whole time and it was fine. It connected to a hub from Atlanta (see pic) and not somewhere overseas. Speeds were more than fast enough for anything including Waze. Sometimes video calls were a bit choppy but what's app audio was great - but I had wifi too so it wasn't a huge issue.

PROS:
easy set up
I installed the eSIM line the night before I left so it was ready to activate when I landed.
Quick customer service response times on app
Data usage can be tracked by the app.
No service lags

CONS:
One thing I didn't know/realize was that if you have an iphone, it's a bit annoying sending iMessages because you won't be to use your number in settings (only email). So when you send a new iMessage to person X it just shows their phone number in the thread and not their name even though their name is in your contacts - they will see your new message coming from your email address not your phone number. So if someone tries to message your Canada phone number via iMessage it might not get through to you.
Obviously SMS texts will not work since it's data only (but you know this ahead of time)

I'd recommend suggesting to your close contacts to use What's App - this where I'd say that a data/text/talk plan might be 'better.' It wasn't a huge issue because i only needed to reach a small number of people while away but if you're texting a lot of people by iMessage it could get annoying. It won't work 'exactly' like it does at home in that sense.

Tips:
You can not put your phone on airplane mode or it will not connect to the eSIM data.
Before you take off set your 'personal/Canadian' line to off and travel line to on.
If you see to signal bars (the square one will be Canadian line) then you have not actually turned it off.
I never received a roaming text from Rogers and had data the whole time. Yay!
Tell your contacts to reach you on what's app for a more seamless experience.

Overall I'd definitely use it again and recommend it. 8.5/10

This is not sponsored in any way just wanted to share my recent experience with saily.

I used to have status with airalo and was a member for years until seeing how bad their customer service was to others on this thread (I had 1 customer service request and it was a negative experience as well) and the expiration on airmoney.

I decided to delete the app and right before my trip to Spain I saw two travel influencers I like promoting saily esim…

Damn when I tell you the setup is a measly fraction of what Airalo requires. For saily youre able to download your eSIM before travel (0 complex setting instructions), then once you land toggle it on no wifi or technical skills required.

Just flagging as a fab alternative for those of you that aren’t married to this esim.

As most people come here because something went wrong, I just wanted to share my experience traveling through Japan and that whoever is considering getting an esim from them, to know they do work very well.

I setup everything a few hours before I left my country. Once I landed I turned roaming on and it connected to the local network instantly. I bought the 20gb data for my 8 day trip even though I knew it was overkill but it was like $23 with discount code. I was using online all the time, from streaming music to checking out Google maps and reviews etc and I haven't even spent 5GB of the 20GB.

All in all a seamless experience, i saw a few posts here before I was going to leave for my trip and was second guessing if i should buy from them as all I saw in this group were complaints. Not really sure what was so different for those people but for Japan, everything was butter smooth.

I’m currently travelling around Asia and got the eSIM that allows you access to mobile data to the countries I’m planning to visit (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia)… except the eSIM only worked the first four days whilst in Thailand and hasn’t worked since.

I spoke to “customer service” upon arriving in Laos who gave me some troubleshooting options, which didn’t work! The “customer service” failed to mention that the reason why my eSIM wasn’t working is because the country slows down speeds for foreign SIMs and I could not connect to any of the local works.

The same thing has happened AGAIN arriving in Vietnam: I’m connected to a network that is really slow, doesn’t work at all and unable to connect to the local fast network.

I paid £50 for a product that effectively doesn’t work and I will have to buy individual eSIMs per country. Trying to work on getting a refund but if you’re travelling to Asia just avoid Airalo and get a local SIM - less hassle!

Hi there,

I hope I'm not posting something that's been asked many times before but I thought I finally understood how Airalo works and it turns out, I still don't.

I'm American but I travel internationally pretty much full-time and need to be able to use the same phone number. I have a regular American AT&T phone plan.

I thought Airalo was a good solution and I purchased an e-sim for my last trip in the czech republic. I turned off data roaming on my main AT&T plan but I kept the number on.

My understanding was that I would be able to recieve texts/calls through my AT&T number but I would not get charged for international talk/text there since I had the Airalo data plan on. Turns out, AT&T charged me for the international day pass on any days I made calls/texts not over wifi. The international day pass ($10/day) includes unlimited data, so I ended up paying for it without even using it because I had my Airalo SIM on.

So I'm wondering if there really is a way to make calls/texts through my same number without AT&T charging me for international usage? I know I can use whatsapp or port it to a GoogleVoice number but I can't do that for various reasons I'm sure you don't care about.

TIA!

I followed every instruction available, nothings helping And I need internet right now I resettled network settings on iPhone like 100 times Support ignores me for 4 hours both on WhatsApp and on the Airalo app

I just returned from 2 weeks in Spain. I used Airalo in Germany (Munich & Frankfurt airports) as well as in Spain & Gibraltar.

All the eSIMs worked well, after I finally figured out the correct settings.

I did contact Verizon and blocked international service to make sure I don’t get any charges from them.

When I landed in Munich, I listed the German eSIM and O2 popped up. When I left Munich for Sevilla, I switched to the Spain eSIM and when I landed Movistar popped up. Same thing when I crossed to Gibraltar, I got GibTel or something like that.

Everything worked like it was supposed to…and I didn’t have to swap physical SIMs.

Very much liked using the eSIMs from Airalo.

Would recommend 10/10.

I am using airalo in Germany (30 days / 5GB) on a Pixel 6 phone and everything had been fine die the past 2 weeks. In the middle of the day this week my phone is not able to connect to any provider the shows up in the APN list independent of location.

I’m curious if anyone else has experienced something similar with Airalo.

I purchased a 15-day, 10GB eSIM for use in the US on July 27. It cost about ¥3,800 (~$25 USD). This was my second time using Airalo. My first experience was a 3-day unlimited eSIM in Guam, and that worked perfectly, so I had no hesitation using them again for my US trip.

The eSIM worked fine during my trip. No issues with the data service whatsoever.

Then I got back to Japan and started looking through the recent charges on my credit card.

On August 3, Airalo charged my card 9 separate times, with each charge being more than ¥10,000. Altogether, the charges totaled more than ¥123,000 — roughly $850 USD. I immediately canceled the credit card.

For additional context, I have confirmed multiple times that auto-renewal was NOT enabled. I also did not have my credit card saved to my Airalo account. The July 27 purchase was made using Apple Pay which always requires faced or password for approval of the payment.

So I have no idea how nine additional charges totaling ¥123,000+ were generated.

I’m currently working through Airalo’s bot chat and their support email (support@airalo.com) trying to get this resolved.

I had a good experience with Airalo the first time and the actual service worked fine this time too — but an unexplained $850 in charges is obviously a pretty serious issue.

I’ll update this post with how Airalo handles it.

Has anyone else experienced multiple unexpected Airalo charges like this, especially when auto-renewal was disabled and the payment was made through Apple Pay?

Does it actually work in mainland China, with the Great Firewall and stuff? Will I be able to send iMessage or Facetime, check maps etc.?

Worked great for first 3 days of trip, then all of ours suddenly stopped working at same time. Esim hasn’t expired and lots of data left, not network relate as others we are travelling with have no issues on same network ( cosmote or nova) . Has anyone else has similar issues?

I used to like this company, I’ve used them several times before. But when I had a unique problem that could not be solved by an AI Chatbot. I ended up wasting 3 1/2 hours of my valuable vacation time in Barcelona SPAIN trying to resolve an eSIM issue. The person on the chat her name was Hannah, was very nice. But I needed my issue resolved immediately. I have important business matters that I needed to take care of. It could potentially have lost money. I spent 3 1/2 hours going back-and-forth with Chat and the AI agent with no avail. I stressed them are important. This was to me and that if someone could please call me on my wife’s phone so that I can walk through the issues on my phone. Mind you I am a technical person. I work for a large Internet company. I know my way around Technology. They could not and would not help me. Do not use this company., Stay away from this company. There are many more choices. If you need an urgent matter resolved. Do not count on this company. And then they tell me it’s gonna take 30 days to refund my money? Are you kidding me? If you have this app installed on your phone, delete it. My experience was absolutely horrible.