FlightSIM eSIM Setup on Samsung Galaxy (One UI)
Add a FlightSIM eSIM to a Galaxy: check the EID first, install through SIM manager on Wi-Fi, and flip the right roaming switch when you land.
Updated August 28, 2026
Home carriers price most destinations outside their own region as far away as it gets. For most travellers that puts the trip in the top band of the roaming table, and a fortnight of navigation, group chats and uploaded photos at that rate costs more than the trip’s meals. The obvious fixes are worse on arrival: airport Wi-Fi dies at the terminal doors, and a local prepaid SIM means finding an open store, queueing, and at some counters producing identification.
Installing a data eSIM before you fly sidesteps all of it. The plan is bought in the FlightSIM app, the line downloads onto the Galaxy over your own Wi-Fi, and the only thing left on the ground is to switch it on. Because the clock starts at the first connection to a network at the destination and not at checkout, install it the evening you pack. Plans are on pricing, and if the idea is new, what an eSIM is explains it in two minutes.
The Galaxy-specific complication is not the tap sequence, which is short and stable. It is whether your particular unit supports eSIM at all. Samsung sells the same model names into dozens of markets through dozens of operators, and some regional and carrier variants ship without the hardware even when the model generally has it, so we will not publish a model list we cannot verify. Dial *#06# on the phone in your hand: an EID printed under the IMEI is the real answer, and it takes five seconds. Other handsets are covered on the iPhone and general Android pages.
Two limits to know now rather than later. The plan is data-only, which means no local phone number, and a verification text, a booking confirmation or a rental desk callback that wants one cannot reach a data line — your own number stays live on your own SIM. The other limit is ordinary: coverage follows the local networks the eSIM connects to, strong where they are strong and thin where they are thin, exactly as a physical SIM bought on arrival would be. Hotspot is included, so one phone can put a laptop or a travelling companion online wherever there is signal, and offline maps downloaded in advance cover the places where there is not.
Installation steps
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Step 1
Check the phone before you buy anything
Open the dialler and enter *#06#. An EID listed under the IMEI means your Galaxy has eSIM hardware. No EID means it does not, and no setting will add one. Model names are a poor guide here, so trust your own handset over any list.
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Step 2
Buy the plan in the FlightSIM app
Pick the destination and plan that suits the trip and pay. The QR code and manual activation details land under your order immediately and stay there, which matters if the first attempt goes wrong.
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Step 3
Install on Wi-Fi before you leave
Downloading a profile needs a working connection, and airport Wi-Fi is a poor thing to depend on with luggage in one hand. Being early costs nothing: the plan counts from its first connection to a network at the destination, not from when you paid.
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Step 4
Open Settings and go to Connections
Connections sits near the top of the Settings list. If your build looks different, type SIM into the search box at the top of Settings — Samsung has moved this menu between One UI generations.
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Step 5
Open SIM manager and tap Add eSIM
SIM manager lists your physical SIM and any digital lines. The button is usually Add eSIM; on older One UI versions the same thing reads Add mobile plan.
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Step 6
Scan the QR code, or enter the code by hand
Choose the option to scan a QR code from a service provider and point the phone at the code on another screen. With no second screen, pick Enter activation code and copy the SM-DP+ address and activation code out of the app. Both install an identical line.
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Step 7
Name the line and leave it switched off
Call it Travel so the preferred-SIM screens are readable later, keep your home SIM set for calls and texts, and turn the new line off until you land. Nothing is consumed while it sits there.
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Step 8
On arrival: enable it, select it for data, turn roaming on
Back in SIM manager, switch the FlightSIM line on and set Mobile data to it under Preferred SIMs. Then enable Data roaming for that line — on One UI the switch lives under Connections, Mobile networks — which is what lets it register on a visited network. Leave it off for your home SIM, where your own carrier is watching.
Troubleshooting
Does this give me a local phone number?
It does not. The plan carries data only. There is no local number on it, none can be added, and your own number stays where it is. Be aware of what that rules out: a food-delivery app, a booking confirmation or a rental car desk that texts a verification code needs a local number, and a data line has none to give. Where one insists, fall back on an email login.
Will the phone have signal everywhere I go?
The eSIM rides on the same local networks a prepaid SIM bought on arrival would use. Dense, well-covered areas are strong almost everywhere; remote or mountainous stretches can be thinner, the same as for any SIM. Download offline maps for anywhere off the beaten path before you lose the signal to check.
There is no Add eSIM option in SIM manager.
Either the handset has no eSIM hardware or it is carrier-locked. The dialler code *#06# settles the first question: an EID means the hardware is there. If the EID is present and the option is not, the phone is almost certainly locked to the operator who sold it, and only they can unlock it. Ask before you travel, not from a hotel lobby in another time zone.
The download failed partway with an error.
Usually the Wi-Fi dropped mid-transfer; occasionally the phone is locked. Get onto a stable connection, restart the Galaxy and try again. Your QR code stays valid until a profile installs successfully once, so a failed attempt has not burned it.
I have landed and mobile data will not work.
In order: in SIM manager, confirm the line is on and selected as the Mobile data SIM; under Mobile networks, confirm Data roaming is enabled for it; then toggle Airplane mode to force a fresh search. If it is still dead, switch off automatic network selection, choose a network manually, let it register, and set selection back to automatic.
Does enabling Data roaming cost extra?
No. On a travel line that switch is not a billing decision — it is the permission Android needs to attach the line to a network other than its own, which is the only kind it will ever see. The switch that does cost money is the one on your home SIM, so leave that off.