Eh, I spend so much on plane tickets and everything else while traveling, $100 a month of travel isn't bad.

Glad I could help.

I understand. My point is that if I don't disable my main line, even without data usage and just using it for calls and sms, I get charged $10 a day. If I use data I also get charged $10 a day.

My carrier bundles the cost of using voice and data abroad into one package with no other option, I get charged for both no matter which I use, unless I fully disable it. Your carrier may not charge you for using voice/sms abroad, which is awesome, but mine does unfortunately.

If I am getting charged anyway, then the local data only sim saves me no money.

The price for me to use my line for voice/sms abroad is the same as using it for voice/sms/data. That's the point of Airalo, to disable your normal line and use the local one. The same as when we used to physically switch the sims before esim, you lose your normal number for the duration entirely.

I would rather pay the extra to keep my normal one active. Unless I am in a country that my normal provider doesn't work in.

Yes but you disable your main line and switch to the second line (and you do get a number, everything has a number even if it is a data only line). If you keep your main line active you're still going to get charged for it.

I personally use AT&T with the international day pass. It's $10/day for the first 10 days then free ($5 for the second line for my wife). If I were going to a country it didn't work in, I work use Airalo.

On a recent trip Airalo would have been about $80 for my wife and I , while AT&T was $150. I saw the extra money a small price to pay for keeping my US number associated with iMessage and not needing to temporarily add a second number to it while also being seamless.