Does AppleCare+ work worldwide (Or at least in Singapore)?

With the Apple iPhone 16 and 16 Pro launching later this week, I want to share a story that might make you consider purchasing AppleCare+ when you buy your new toy.

Earlier month, I was in Singapore, where my iPhone 14 Pro was pickpocketed.

After a lot of back and forth (there was drama… a story for another day), I found it had been handed in by a kind person.

But sadly, not in one piece.

Taken at the Apple Store, Marina Bay Sands.

You can see what state it’s in – it’s barely there. But functional enough it seemed to get it into a service mode.  Thankfully I was at the Mariana Bay Sands there is an Apple Store.

A perfect place to get help.

After a lot of help from the Apple Marina Bay Sands staff, I had the answers I needed

• Yes, the OLED is dead
• There’s enough cracked glass for Annie Lennox to walk on
• The data was intact from what I could see

There was one worry – had they managed to compromise the secure element of the phone? By that I mean the FaceID, PIN Code and banking apps

I checked the banking apps—nothing had been hit, indicating they didn’t hit the secure modules.

The phone itself was cracked, but the data was safe. 

Now, the next issue – do I have to replace it in the UK – or could I get this serviced whilst I was in Singapore?

Going in at 9:30 in the evening, I had no hope for… honestly everything. I had regained myself to get this sorted when I got home and was planning a trip to Little India or the bun fight that is Sim Lim Square.. as well as a protective pouch to put the thing in whilst it travelled powered off.

Thankfully, the staff were sympathetic and tried to help with what they saw. They ran the diagnostics and started hunting for a replacement part. They also confirmed that the device was covered by AppleCare+.

This meant that any costs for the replacement would be minimal.

After a bit of checking, they found one purple iPhone with 512Gb of storage in the whole of Singapore – at Orchard Road. After a little bit of back and forth by the staff, a work order was put in and the device was reserved for pickup the next day.

With that done, I tried to use the phone without impaling myself with shards of glass.

There was an important task I needed to do.

Overnight

With the cracked device back in my hands, I headed to the hotel – there was work to do.

It was going to be a long night, as I needed to do an iPhone backup. This device needed to be synchronized with the MacBook Pro, as opposed to using a cloud backup service.   With 300Gb of data on the device, iCloud is a no-no – purely on cost on an ongoing basis.

£8.99 a month adds up…. fast. Because everyone loves subscriptions for services.

I did some computer spring cleaning, as well as the backup itself, keeping an eye on the device like a hawk (with all that glass, there was a glass of water nearby – in case the Li-Poly battery had been compromised).

May the backup deities work their magic. 

By 3 am, I had a valid backup, as well as a lot of data migrated off the laptop. I do wish Apple implemented USB3 on all of its devices (even the brand new ones – some only go at USB2 speeds, with a USB-C interface).

I needed sleep, as well as the instant noodles I had brought for a “just in case” emergency (as I skipped lunch and dinner that day).

The next day

I’ve never been in an Apple Store as the first person in the store – but here we are on Orchard Row just before opening time.

Apple on Orchard Road. 

I was pre-processed outside, with my appointment checked in. Once the doors were opened, I headed upstairs to be processed.

The employee went through the case notes (raising their eyes more than once) but did confirm that I could have this covered under AppleCare. I was told that the rest of my AppleCare would transfer over.  All 15 days remaining of it.

If there was a time for a disaster to happen, this was it.

With the paperwork done, a replacement phone was issued, and the old one was taken to meet its fate.

It was a matter of the phone being registered on Apple servers, where my sim card came back to life in the new device. With it up and running (to the point I could start doing things), it was time for the worrying part. Restoring the iPhone and hoping the backup I had was valid.

Data Restore in progress.

For the best part of 3 and a half hours, I sat and watched a progress bar do its thing (as well as process monitor, so I could see how much data had been written to the phone).

Which isn’t helpful, especially as I had a check-out deadline to meet (and failed, spectacularly). But by a mixture of luck and patience, eventually, the phone restore completed… and rebooted.

I took this opportunity to return the lighting cable to the staff I had borrowed, and then let the phone start up. Eventually, on Orchard Road, The “Hello” prompt came up on the phone. From here, it was the usual Apple onboarding process to complete the phone being activated.

That done, the first app I downloaded was Grab (as the taxis on Orchard Road weren’t playing ball), to get back to the hotel to profusely apologise and check out.

The next few hours were spend watching applications reload, security checks triggered and reinstalling a lot of applications which had mismatched caches.

The only thing I really lost  – was the eSIM I had for Singapore.

Does Applecare work worldwide (Or at least in Singapore)?

Absolutely.

It got me out of a major fix at a time when I thought I was long down the river, whilst minimising the cost of the incidents (before this, I had a replacement battery installed a few months earlier).

There are a lot of bad things I can say about Apple – and we all have our own negative experiences (or thoughts about their practices).

However, when I needed support in my hour of need – they came through with the purchased support package, even halfway around the world.

Next Steps

In a few days, the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro will be made available for sale. It shouldn’t be a surprise dear reader,  that I’ve pre-ordered a device with oodles of storage.

Since I normally take my iPhones bi-annually, I normally purchase my iPhone on the iPhone Upgrade Programme. This normally includes AppleCare+ as part of the purchase price and fee.

Whilst I don’t upgrade the phone through the programme these days (with improvements this day much more iterative, rather than leaps and bounds, leading me to the two-year upgrade cycle ), it spreads the cost of a device out, whilst adding a care package, which makes life a lot easier.

And at the end of 20 months, it’s “my” device. I don’t have to trade it back in.

Certainly, having appropriate insurance as well is never a bad thing,  as well as maybe a better iPhone case in the future that’s around my neck,

But this is one time, I can say that Apple got me out of very nasty patch when travelling.

I just hope you don’t need a worry like this when you travel – it can turn a great trip sour, fast.

 

I’ll be telling more of the story in the Trip Report – which is starting next week. Keep an eye on this. You’ll be amazed by the power of an app that helped rescue my iPhone. 

---

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond. Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.

Our Social Media pool has expanded. You can find us across most networks as @economybeyond on Twitter,  Mastodon,  BlueSky, Threads and  Instagram!

Also, remember that we are part of the BoardingArea community, bringing you the latest frequent flyer news from around the world.