If anyone is curious, I tried in vain, multiple times, to have AT$T unlock mine and my wife's 6S, both on the Next plan. We are traveling in February and have no intention of paying AT$T's silly global passport prices.
Despite the fact that they unlocked her 6 last February, in the middle of her Next payments, they refused to do the same this year. I tried every trick in the book...different phone numbers, escalating to retentions. They would not budge, and would have rathered that I jumped to a different carrier than unlock our phones. This conclusion, after literally hours waiting on hold and being transferred from rep to rep, being hung up on, being told the phones would finally be unlocked, but then told it was a misunderstanding. A complete waste of a LOT of time.
At one point I asked a rep, "What is my incentive to buy from AT$T next year, when Apple offers the same installment terms, except their phone is unlocked?" They couldn't answer that one.
Finally, I started looking at unlock services. I had unlocked my own 6 last year with chronicunlocks, for just a few bucks. Obviously the game has changed since last year, because they wanted much more this year. Also, they unlocked my phone pretty quickly last year, but took weeks to unlock my wife's, which prompted me to try AT$T's unlock request portal. AT$T ultimately unlocked her phone, as mentioned, but the very next day, chronicunlocks tried to take the credit (and the money) for it. After several emails back and forth, chronic did refund me, but up until that point their speed and communication was seriously lacking.
This year I decided to skip chronic altogether. I had read good things about samunlocks. For 15 refundable bucks, I figured what the heck. The request was almost immediately rejected and the fee refunded. I was told that paying for their premium $90 service would guarantee success. For $15, they were basically offering the same (low) tier of service as all the $2 unlockers on eBay.
$180 to unlock 2 phones for a short trip to the Carribean seemed a bit pricey, so I started shopping around. Turns out pretty much all the major players want about that much.
Then I remembered swiftunlocks. They had unlocked an iPhone 5 for me for like $2 back when the unlocking flood gates were open.
Since then, they've apparently had a little legal trouble, but their website seemed intact, and they take PayPal, so I felt OK about taking a chance.
I emailed them about a coupon code (no luck), and they replied within minutes. I asked a few other questions, and I received nothing but prompt courteous replies. Their price ($65 per phone) was still a lot more than I wanted to pay, but their fast professional replies bolstered my confidence. I was also getting really tired of playing this game.
I ordered the 2 unlocks on a Tuesday and got the unlock confirmations by that Friday. These are definitely the hardest unlocks to get...AT$T Next plan with only a few months paid off. Chronicunlocks took weeks last year, and ultimately only delivered one of 2 requests. Swiftunlocks was pricier than chronic last year, like everyone else, but much much faster.
I had read about their legal troubles from earlier this year, but have read no updates. I had read that AT$T was "relocking" phones that swift had unlocked, but I couldn't find a single person who had actually experienced a "relock".
All in all, it would seem AT$T is cracking down much harder on their unlocking courtesies and loopholes. If you're on the Next plan and their unlock portal denies you, and you absolutely must have an unlock, and don't want to pay $90 and up, I recommend swiftunlocks. Unlike any other service I've used, they communicated professionally, in almost real time, and completed the job faster than anyone, including AT$T themselves.
