Congrats on your solid plan! A couple of my thoughts:
Yes, ATT was a pain. We spent the first three days trying to get things to work right, after we had purchased the global (24.99) package. Might be a good idea to just buy a temp use phone as suggested.
I flew home in regular seats, but I was 3 weeks post op when I did. I think that may have helped. Had a hybrid lumbar fusion and 1 ADR, so pretty remarkable that I was fine without the recline seats. I wouldn't have benefitted from them. No problem sitting as long as I got up (day time flight helped to).
I changed my credit card to a no fee for foreign transactions type(Chase). They just use the day's exchange rate. That is how I paid for surgery too. And yes, do tell them the dates you'll be gone and where you'll be.
We only had a little bit of cash, and used our card otherwise. Since we didn't carry a lot of cash, we didn't worry too much about where to exchange it for the best rate. I think we did it at the airport right away.
Take it easy if they offer hydrotherapy. That is the one thing I would change about my experience if I could. It felt easy and comfortable and wonderful at the time.... I suffered greatly from overdoing it all three sessions about 4 hours later. I had to quit doing it until restarting it today at home (4 weeks post op). I think I can tolerate it now.
Prunes, prunes, and more prunes!
