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The very phrase “roaming charges” brings me out in a slightly cold sweat, synonymous as I see it with sky-high mobile telephone bills. However, there are occasions when it’s a necessary evil and in such circumstances, you may as well earn something back for your troubles.

That’s where Travelling Connect comes in.

Travelling Connect lets you earn points and miles while roaming via its network of partner telecoms providers in over 25 countries. So, if you register with Travelling Connect (you obviously add your phone number to your account details), you will earn airline miles or hotel points in your preferred loyalty scheme every time you roam (calls and data) on one of these partner networks.

The service is free of charge and as such you will not be charged any more than you would ordinarily be by the telecoms network. You can also add up to 3 additional phone numbers to your Travelling Connect account, and will also earn miles/points on all roaming on these phones.

The loyalty schemes you can earn points with are extensive, and as follows:

Earning rates depend on both your chosen loyalty scheme and the partner network, but as an example you will earn 4 Etihad Guest miles per minute spent roaming in Turkey with Turkcell.

You can see all earning rates here. Just click on the country/partner network, choose your loyalty programme and you can see the earning rates.

This is a particularly good option for just signing up to and then forgetting about. I will occasionally get a handful of miles in my Etihad Guest account from roaming charges, despite the fact I was totally oblivious at the time of such roaming that I would be earning miles for the call.

The obvious health warning is that data roaming is generally an expensive thing to do, so this shouldn’t be seen as a great way to earn miles, but if you’re going to do it anyway, you should earn some miles for doing so. If your company picks up the phone tab, even better.