How to communicate with my spouse on his way to POE

[Karmalicious 60]

Good morning, so glad that all of you are here.

My husband will be coming from Ghana and right now he has MTN service on his iphone as well as viber and skype. In my experience there were very few places in the airport with free wifi and I was never able to figure out the Skype wifi thing.

Whats the best way to make sure he has the ability to communicate with me as he travels? He's never flown before and I am unable to go and fetch him.

Any ideas?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

He will have to make his way on his own, look for signs, ask people for help, stuff like that.

Remember that airports were designed before cell phones and people were able to make their way and meet people.

Is his final destination his POE or does he have a connection?

[Girl from Celebes 588]

Good morning, so glad that all of you are here.

My husband will be coming from Ghana and right now he has MTN service on his iphone as well as viber and skype. In my experience there were very few places in the airport with free wifi and I was never able to figure out the Skype wifi thing.

Whats the best way to make sure he has the ability to communicate with me as he travels? He's never flown before and I am unable to go and fetch him.

Any ideas?

When I had my PoE - luckily I had my husband with me- the airports were always had free Wi-Fi. From Seoul (South Korea), Detroit International Airport, Fort Myers, and finally Key West. Most of big airports have free wi-fi. Does he have connecting flights? which airport will be his PoE? how many connecting flights?

Like Harpa said, people traveled long time ago even before internet was existed. There are always many ways, ask officers at airport, front desk of airlines, etc. He won't be lost, believe me, .

[jarta 24]

If he has viber and skype I am assuming he has smart phone. Most of the airports have free wifi so he can just connect and then call you through viber but he should not be calling while he is waiting to go through immigration. The security guys dont like that and they have posted signs about that. Look up the airport that he is flying into and check to see if they have free wifi.

Check this out

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/15775436/introducing-our-airport-wifi-access-chart/

[sweet cakes 326]

Good morning, so glad that all of you are here.

My husband will be coming from Ghana and right now he has MTN service on his iphone as well as viber and skype. In my experience there were very few places in the airport with free wifi and I was never able to figure out the Skype wifi thing.

Whats the best way to make sure he has the ability to communicate with me as he travels? He's never flown before and I am unable to go and fetch him.

Any ideas?

If in case there is no wifi, he can look for a payphone and call you.

Will you be fetching him at the airport? If so, you can give him a meet-up point or a landmark where he can proceed to after getting his luggage.

Edited August 7, 2014 by sweet cakes

[Karmalicious 60]

He will have to make his way on his own, look for signs, ask people for help, stuff like that.

Remember that airports were designed before cell phones and people were able to make their way and meet people.

Is his final destination his POE or does he have a connection?

I think he will be fine really. First he goes to Heathrow which has incredible help on their website telling you how to get from gate to gate and how long it will take. Then it will be DFW and of course, I will be there. I'm mostly wanting him to be able to text back and forth in case the line is long at CBP.

As always Harpa, thanks for your knowledge and willingness to share it.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

I think he will be fine really. First he goes to Heathrow which has incredible help on their website telling you how to get from gate to gate and how long it will take. Then it will be DFW and of course, I will be there. I'm mostly wanting him to be able to text back and forth in case the line is long at CBP.

As always Harpa, thanks for your knowledge and willingness to share it.

Cell phones are not allowed in the customs and immigration area anyway.

You can pretend you are time traveling to 10 years ago when not everyone had a cell phone.

We just went to pick up my BIL and we had to wait over an hour! It was boring but we survived. Good luck to you and congrats on approval!

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

They have free internet at Heathrow (I believe it's limited to 30 mins) that helped my wife and I sort out at an issue via Whatsapp when she thought she was landing at Terminal 5 and she actually landed at 3 causing me to be waiting at the wrong Terminal! In addition to this they also have phone and laptop charging points so it should be easy for him to keep you updated on that part. Many US airports have free wifi too for when he lands, although it can be patchy (like it is at Logan!).

Edited August 8, 2014 by Hotter Otter

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

They have free internet at Heathrow (I believe it's limited to 30 mins) that helped my wife and I sort out at an issue via Whatsapp when she thought she was landing at Terminal 5 and she actually landed at 3 causing me to be waiting at the wrong Terminal! In addition to this they also have phone and laptop charging points so it should be easy for him to keep you updated on that part. Many US airports have free wifi too for when he lands, although it can be patchy (like it is at Logan!).

Not to be a pain but you can check flight status and terminal with the airline themselves beforehand.

[CowBoE 429]

In my case, I have an extra phone line that I'm not using often,

so I plan to send her the SIM card so that she can get her iPhone to work in US.