One of the more popular mobile wi-fi routers out in the market today is Flytpack. I’ve read many favorable reviews of it online, so I was eager to try it out myself. To test it out fully, I brought it to my biggest trip this year—a two-week journey to the United Kingdom and Ireland with a stop in Thailand.
First things first, I checked if the destinations I was going to were covered. Thailand was a no-brainer, but I wasn’t too sure about UK and Ireland, since the website only listed a Europe package. A quick call to Flytpack confirmed that, indeed, the two countries I was going to were included in the Europe package.
For Europe, the rate was 500 PHP per day, while for Thailand, it was 220 PHP per day. I thought those were reasonable enough granted there were two of us sharing the router.
Ordering a unit was quite straightforward—the website only asked for travel details (which also determined the total cost of the rental), personal details, and pickup/delivery method. Payments can be made either by credit card (Visa or MasterCard) or by bank transfer.
Since I was quite swamped days leading to the trip, I opted for the unit to be conveniently delivered to my friend’s office. Couple of days before our flight, the unit was brought in by courier. (Note: They now have a rental shop that also serves as a pickup and return point at NAIA Terminal 3 in Manila.)
The Flytpack was neatly and nicely packaged in a denim zip-pouch. Aside from the router itself, also inside were a USB charging cable, a universal adapter, and an introductory pamphlet. Conspicuously missing was a charging adapter, but luckily, I had one with four USB slots (a must-have for any traveler), so it was no problem.
My outbound flight was Manila-Bangkok-Doha-London. My outbound transit in Bangkok was rather short and didn’t involve going out of the airport, so I didn’t use the Flytpack yet. But upon touchdown at London-Heathrow hours later, I giddily powered it up.
Moments later, I already saw the signal bars go up along with a 4G symbol. I hurriedly announced on social media that I’ve arrived in the UK (my first time) and immediately notified my loved ones.
For days on end, we shared the Flytpack, and the signal in both UK and Ireland was stable, since it piggybacked on Vodafone, a reliable telecom provider in the EU. Usual download speed on 4G was about 12-15 Mbps, which was fast enough not only for social media but for videos as well.
But much as we wanted to use the router 24/7, since its speeds were fast, there was a data cap (otherwise known as the so-called fair use policy or FUP) of 500 MB per day. Exceeding the cap meant a throttled down speed, which didn’t do much for us apart from basic social media posts and chat messages. Having breached the limit a few times during the trip, I urge heavy data users to get one Flytpack per person.
Speaking of data cap, there thankfully was a counter on the router’s backlit screen that indicated that day’s data usage.
I was impressed that the Flytpack’s power lasted the entire day, and I had to only fully charge it for a few hours every end of the day. By the way, I only realized belatedly that the router doubled as a power bank—not that I needed it, but it was a cool feature, nonetheless.
En route to Manila, I had to stay in Bangkok a couple of days. The internet Flytpack provided was also fast and stable, and I thought it even performed better there than in the UK and Ireland.
A day after we arrived in Manila, the courier picked up the Flytpack from, again, my friend’s office. It was a relief because we were drained post-trip and couldn’t be bothered to go through the hassle of sending it back.
In all, I thought Flytpack was a great product. The internet it provided was consistently fast and reliable. The delivery/pickup by courier was convenient. Lastly, it was cost-effective, granted there were two of us sharing the router. I’d definitely consider renting one again in the future.
For more information on Flytpack, visit flytpack.com and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
