participate in those AT&T deals where you can get a "free" new phone with a trade-in (after monthly subsidy for 30-36 months).  You do get the benefit of other promotions, however.  I think you will always pay at least $408 (but perhaps not more than $408) for a new phone as the monthly line fee goes up $17/month for 24 months when you get a new phone through them.  You may or may not pay an additional amount depending on the promotion.  If you're currently on an AT&T subsidized installment plan, those charges and credits can transfer over to the BYU Alumni plan.

A minor downside is the billing information is not as detailed as with a normal AT&T plan.  Sometimes it's hard to follow what all the charges and credits are for, especially if a new line is added or transferred over. But I've never felt like I've been overcharged.

I haven't used one of the available international plans since I've been with the BYU plan. There seem to be more options but it says you need to request any international plan 48 hours in advance, which I don't think is the case with a normal AT&T plan. The most expensive "International Day Pass" option with unlimited high-speed data, voice calling, and texting is only $5/day--looks like it's up to $12/day now with the normal plan (capped at 10 charges per billing period). So if you're going to use it for more than 24 days in a billing period, the BYU plan looks to be more expensive as they don't appear to cap the number of charges.

No international plan needed for Canada/Mexico.  No coverage for cruise ships.