Upvote:8
Your phone takes a while to connect to a roaming network because first it tries to scan for all networks, which takes a while. The phones of travelers coming home will immediately find their preferred networks and not need to do the full scan.
If you refrain from restarting your phone, toggling airplane mode, etc. and just have a bit of patience itβll connect. Alternatively, you can buy a SIM card which is local to the destination country, and pop it in your phone while in-flight.