An eSIM has two separate moments, and almost everyone collapses them into one: installing the profile, and starting the plan.
Installing is just scanning the QR code we email you. It adds a second line to your phone and costs you nothing. Do this at home, on your own wifi, the week before you fly — because the one place you do not want to be troubleshooting a QR code is the arrivals hall in Bilbao at midnight.
Starting the plan happens the first time the eSIM actually connects to a Spanish or Portuguese network. That is when the clock on your thirty days begins. So: install early, leave the line switched off, and turn it on when you land.
The three-line version
Scan the QR at home. Leave the new line disabled. On arrival, enable the line, set it as your data line, leave your home SIM on for calls and texts. That is the whole procedure.
If you scan it and nothing happens, it is almost always because the phone is on the airline's wifi rather than a real connection. Try again on mobile data or a proper network.
Walking one of these routes?
Pick it on the map and we'll show only the plans that cover it end to end.
Keep reading
Coverage
Where the Meseta eats your signal
Between Burgos and León the Camino Francés goes very quiet — and so does your phone. Here is roughly where, an...
Data
What 1 GB actually buys you out there
Pilgrims massively overestimate how much data they need — right up until someone in the group starts video-cal...Photos: Wikimedia Commons contributor (CC0) , José Antonio Gil Martínez from Vigo, Spain (CC BY 2.0) · via Wikimedia Commons