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Aisha
07 March 2026
If you're a Virgin Plus customer who has relied on a Data Travel Pass for trips abroad, there's something important to know before your next flight: Virgin Plus has announced that Data Travel Passes will no longer be available as of March 19, 2026. That removes what was, for many members, the most cost-predictable roaming option for destinations not covered by Roam Sweet Roam. Going forward, Virgin Plus international roaming means choosing between the daily Roam Sweet Roam rate or pay-per-use charges for destinations outside the supported zone. Understanding what that means for your bill, and when a travel eSIM becomes the smarter alternative, is worth figuring out before you board.
Virgin Plus is a Bell subsidiary operating on Bell's network, which covers roughly 99% of the Canadian population through a combination of owned infrastructure and roaming agreements. Internationally, Virgin Plus roaming works through Bell's partnerships with carriers in supported destinations. The core product is Roam Sweet Roam, a daily roaming service that lets you use the data, calls, and texts from your existing Virgin Plus plan while travelling.
Roam Sweet Roam charges a flat daily fee based on Eastern Time: each billing day runs from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM ET, regardless of your local time zone. In US destinations, Canada/US plans don't trigger additional daily charges for members already on unlimited Canada/US plans. For international destinations, a daily rate applies per member per day of use. Data while roaming is capped at 5 GB per day at full speed; beyond that, speeds drop to 512 Kbps for the remainder of the day. Current daily rates are available at virginplus.ca/en/support/international-roaming-rates.html.
The discontinuation of the Data Travel Pass on March 19, 2026 is a meaningful change. Travel Passes served members travelling to countries in Zone 2 and Zone 3, where Roam Sweet Roam isn't available. Without a Travel Pass, those destinations will revert entirely to pay-per-use rates. If you're travelling to a country in an unsupported roaming zone after mid-March, a travel eSIM is now the only practical way to get data at a predictable cost.
Check your destination zone first. Virgin Plus divides international destinations into roaming zones. Roam Sweet Roam covers a specific set of countries; other destinations fall into zones where only pay-per-use rates apply (and, previously, Data Travel Passes). Check your destination at virginplus.ca/en/support/international-roaming-zones.html before making any decisions.
Activate Roam Sweet Roam via My Account or SMS. If you haven't already enrolled in Roam Sweet Roam with Home Data, you can switch by texting ROAMHOME to 6800. You'll receive a confirmation text. You can also manage this through your Virgin Plus My Account dashboard.
Add the pass or confirm roaming on your departure day. Virgin Plus Travel Passes activate immediately upon purchase and expire exactly 14 or 30 days later at 11:59 PM ET. If you add it a day early, you lose that day. Add it on the day your trip starts.
Remember the 5 GB daily speed cap. While roaming with Roam Sweet Roam, data is at full speed up to 5 GB per calendar day, then throttled to 512 Kbps. For travellers relying heavily on video calls, navigation, and hotspot sharing, that cap can be a real constraint on long travel days.
Cruise ship and in-flight roaming is gone. Effective June 19, 2025, Virgin Plus discontinued all roaming on cruise ships and during flights. If you're on a cruise, check with your cruise line for onboard Wi-Fi options.
Prepaid members cannot roam at all. Virgin Plus prepaid plans are excluded from all US and international roaming. Prepaid customers travelling outside Canada must use Wi-Fi only or purchase a separate travel SIM or eSIM.
The March 2026 discontinuation of Data Travel Passes makes this calculation starker than it used to be. Turkey, for example, falls outside Virgin Plus's Roam Sweet Roam zone. Before March 19, a Data Travel Pass was an option for members heading to Istanbul. After that date, it's pay-per-use rates or a travel eSIM. For any trip longer than a few days to a destination outside the Roam Sweet Roam coverage area, a dedicated travel eSIM is now clearly the better choice on both cost and reliability grounds.
Even within Roam Sweet Roam-supported countries, the daily charge model has a different problem: it rewards light users and penalizes heavy ones. A traveller who barely touches their phone one day still pays the same daily rate as someone who streamed video for six hours. A travel eSIM gives you a fixed data allocation for a fixed cost, no daily charges, no speed throttling at 5 GB, and no billing surprises at month end.
Turkey has never been part of the Roam Sweet Roam coverage zone, and with the Data Travel Pass being discontinued in March 2026, there is now no structured Virgin Plus roaming option for Turkey at all. Pay-per-use data rates are not a practical solution for a week in Istanbul where you'll be navigating between Sultanahmet and Karakoy, checking restaurant reviews on the fly, and sharing photos from the Bosphorus ferry. The rates make anything beyond a single Google search financially impractical.
Virgin Plus members with eSIM-compatible devices (iPhone XS and later, Samsung Galaxy S20 and later, Google Pixel 3a and later) can install a TurkSIM eSIM Turkey before they fly. The eSIM connects via Turkcell or Vodafone TR on 4G LTE, covering Istanbul's European and Asian sides, the coast from Bodrum to Antalya, and inland routes through Cappadocia. Your Virgin Plus SIM stays active in parallel, keeping your Canadian number reachable for Bell/Virgin banking OTPs and calls from family. The eSIM gets purchased, downloaded, and installed at home; no SIM swap required, no roaming block to worry about. Just scan the QR code, set the eSIM as your data line, and your phone is ready before you board.
No. Virgin Plus announced that Data Travel Passes will no longer be available as of March 19, 2026. Members who previously used Travel Passes for destinations outside the Roam Sweet Roam zone will need to use pay-per-use rates or a travel eSIM for those countries going forward.
Roam Sweet Roam charges a flat daily fee per account member per day of use abroad. Days are based on Eastern Time, running from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM ET. You're charged whenever you make or receive a call, send a text, or use data during a billing day. Up to 5 GB of data per day is delivered at full plan speed, with speeds reduced to 512 Kbps after that threshold until midnight ET.
Turkey is not included in the Roam Sweet Roam destination list. With Data Travel Passes discontinued as of March 19, 2026, Virgin Plus customers travelling to Turkey will only have access to pay-per-use rates, which are not suitable for regular data use. A travel eSIM for Turkey is the recommended alternative.
No. Prepaid Virgin Plus plans do not support any US or international roaming. If you're on a prepaid plan, you'll need Wi-Fi or a separate travel SIM/eSIM for any data connectivity outside Canada.
Yes, on any dual-SIM capable device. Keep your Virgin Plus SIM active for calls and Canadian number access; set a travel eSIM as your mobile data connection. Disable data roaming on your Virgin Plus SIM so it doesn't accidentally trigger pay-per-use charges. This setup is especially useful in countries like Turkey where no Virgin Plus roaming add-on is available.
Virgin Plus discontinued all roaming on cruise ships and in-flight services effective June 19, 2025. Members on cruises should contact their cruise line for onboard Wi-Fi packages. There is currently no Virgin Plus option for staying connected at sea.
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