The Unofficial Star Mega Do III Meetin' Place

There’s only one Y seat, an E+ middle in the exit row, 21, left on CO 406 departing DEN @ 4:32PM to LGA on Sunday! The seat map shows 8 F seats available, but clicking on Fare Class brings up no info. For just over $1,000, the site would let me buy F, but, uh, no thanks at that price.

Could be a Death Match for those F seats.

But for $245, I went for the triple mile addition along with making them all EQM’s. First time it seemed reasonable to me.

I see your search for an alternative to DL is in full swing.

Maybe I should auction myself off, with the major alliance bidding the least winning me.

have any of you mastered the using of a foreign sim chip in your phone concept? just got unlock code from tmobile. is there a brand of prepaid sim thats better than others from EU to US and intra eu dialing? I am committed to coming home with a phone bill for less than $500. which has never happened to me on travel to europe. I saw in the online edition of lufthansa's inflight catalog that they have one of these, thinking that may be a place to start in figuring this out.

TAHKUCT, jetstr and I will be using pre-paid Vodafone Germany SIM cards (http://www.vodafone.de/privat/tarife/prepaid-ohne-vertrag.html). The cards are available on eBay for about $8, but it's too late to get one. You can always pick one up at the airport. Cheap data, relatively low cost phone calls, although for calling back to the US, T-Mobile roaming ($1.29 per minute) is cheaper.

More information here: http://bit.ly/pi3EPv.

Just noticed you're on T-Mobile, but if AT&T, I might note:

that AT&T has this plan, that you could add just for the one month. 125 MB in a week is a bit hard to blow past if you stick to Skype calls and occasional web/email usage. You can dial intra-EU over Skype (which works over 3G). The advantage is you still keep your US phone number, which lets you receive US texts and phone calls. Otherwise you'll need to maintain two separate phones which can be a different sort of load on the pocket too.

$49.99/mo 125 MB in over 100 select countries1
Overage: $10/10 MB. Rate in additional countries: $0.0195/KB
Add if you think you'll be sending texts. though it's way better to send via Skype or something.

Global Messaging 50 Package $10/mo – save up to 80% over pay-per-use rates Send 50 messages while outside the U.S.
• Messages – text, picture, video, or instant – can be sent from more than 100 countries.
• Overage rate is 40¢ per message.

For more information, visitatt.com/global
For a list of countries, visitatt.com/dataconnectglobal

Batteries for cameras are charging. Laundry later today. Milepoint tags attached to rollerbag. Podcasts updating. Earphones put in case. Backup chargers for phone and cameras put in backpack. Passport and MUC hotel voucher put in large billfold. Yup, gettin’ ready!

For me, ipad cover was purchased last night and I've been making lists of things not to forget or not to forget to do before leaving. However, I'm nowhere close to being ready to leave.

T-Mobile, unfortunately, has nothing like that. While roaming voice and SMS pricing is somewhat acceptable, data is outrageously expensive, at $15/MB.

I plan to spend no more than $10 in Germany, given that Vodafone data is Euro 3.95 for 24 hours, and incoming calls are free (paid for by the calling party).

...but fairly easy to blow by if you don't...

Keeping one's US phone number can be an advantage if absolutely necessary. But unless one is expecting to answer a lot of calls during our 24 hours in Germany and 24 hours in Canada, it's just as easy to swap out the sim.

And if one has a device with a microsim (like an unlocked iPhone 4), note that most prepaid sims bought via vending machines and retailers are "normal" sim sizes. But have no fear, I have a handheld microsim cutter if anyone need to use it.

AT&T has BS reliability in the US, and they have BS data rates domestically and abroad. If one has an unlocked GSM device, get a prepaid foreign sim.

I have a spare Vodafone sim and might be able to let you use it, you will just need to load money on it. However, I will need it back once our trip is completed.

I use localphone.com (see my signature for a referral link) to forward all my calls to my Vodafone sim card. They issue you a local US number to call and you can register others people (ones that need to reach you) phone numbers in your localphone account. Then they just call that local number and reach you, you just pay I think around $0.11 per minute and all incoming calls on your Vodafone sim are free as long as it has money on it.

I use an O2 prepaid card that I've had for many years. I just have to put credit on it once a year and I have a permanent German cell #. That card and most other brands can be bought just about anywhere. You do need to make sure your phone is unlocked.

There are also carriers (search Google, don't have link handy) that give you a UK number and an (not free) US forwarding number. But those are too late to get shipped at this point.

It's easy - they might have them at the airport. It's just a matter of powering down the phone, replacing the SIM, and powering back up the phone and entering your unlock code. You'll need to spend a little time getting a phone number and activating it when you buy it, but it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes. Just make sure you don't lose those SIMs.

I want to say O2, t-Mobile and Vodaphone are popular in Europe. Some of their Web sites should show if they have specials on ordering sims.

I have a Fido SIM from Canada that I wasn't intending to bring, but if someone wants to borrow it let me know before Tuesday. I don't think I have anything on it at the moment.

I'd like to use it while we're in Canada.

I'll put it in the bag. Let me see what it will take to put cash on it - I think it's $11/month + 10 cents a minute - so it may take a $20 voucher to get things rolling.

When I went to YVR I spent $10 to activate and $30 on credit - but that was because I was there for a week. You might be able to get set up for $30 total.

Since I haven't won the iPad yet on the flight it is so hard figuring out what kind of cover to get.

May be you should buy a cover for an Ipad anyway, at least you will have that if you will not win an Ipad

I splurged on basic black leather.

Or, if you win one, you should ideally be ready so that when you want to take it somewhere with you, you're all set.

Ok the sim card seems easy enough, Last stoopid I'd question though. With subsequent trips to fco and bts coming up later this year, will that have any impact on the kind of sim I should get? Is a German number cAlling from Italy or Slovakia going to affect call pricing? Not sure what Europe considers roaming

In general, it's better to get prepaid sims in each of the countries you'll be visiting. Prepaid sims purchased in one country will function across borders - but at such exorbitant pricing such that you would lose your stored/prepaid value almost immediately.

Within the EU there are actually caps on roaming charges. Depending on how much you plan to use your phone it may still make sense to get new local cards everywhere. But at low volume one card may be most cost-effective.

As of July 2011:

Prices for mobile roaming calls are reduced further with a maximum tariff of €0.35 per minute for calls made and €0.11 per minute for calls received.
The maximum wholesale prices for data roaming fall from €0.80 to €0.50 per MB.
Receiving a voice mail message while roaming will become free of charge.

What remains in force?

The price for sending a text message while roaming in the EU is still limited to a maximum of €0.11. Receiving an SMS in another EU country is free of charge.
For roamed calls, operators are obliged to use per second billing after the first 30 seconds for calls made and immediately for calls received.

Agreed - "at low volume." If you are a data hog like me, even the pricing caps quickly exceed the cost of purchasing an in-country sim and getting an unlimited data plan.

There were 2 recent articles in the NY Times about phone and data charges while abroad and some money saving techniques, including using apps to keep data usage down.

For phone charges: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/08/0...&sq=saving international phone charges&st=cse

For data: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/08/1...&sq=saving international phone charges&st=cse

Hope these help. I have Opera and Onavo, but haven’t used them yet. Might try them this time out, but for only one day away really, I’m not prepared to plunk down extra for ATT’s int’l data plans.