RedLight2015

All Delta operated flights had it for well over a year now. The gate agents even made the announcement you can use Apple Pay, Google pay, or Samsung pay. The FA does as well.

Note, this is not the case on any of the third party ran flights like SkyWest.

tmiw

Yeah, I kinda figured it was out for a bit (I typically fly AS and WN these days, so DL is uncommon for me). Probably shouldn't be advertising it as "new", though. So far I've only heard it announced in-flight, but it's possible that they announced it in SEA while I was trying to go from the A gates to my B gate.

Also, looks like it's a swing and a miss for trying it this flight too. Oh well, maybe on the way back. I did catch a glimpse of the reader and it looks like it's something on the lower back of their phone type devices.

tmiw

Looks like the Marriott I'm staying at (a Fairfield Inn and Suites) this trip is still using the Magtek readers at the front desk. I was under the impression that EMV (and contactless for the in-hotel Starbucks, etc.) was chain-wide, but maybe the Ingenico terminals are just mainline Marriott wide.

Also, the Waffle House closest to CVG is using a semi-recent NCR POS but no customer facing devices (swipe only on the cashier's side). I guess EMV there isn't nearly as common as I was thinking.

phltraveler

Ingenico terminals at the front desk are chain wide as I understand it, but just had the same experience at a Courtyard in San Francisco. Ingenico Lanes at the front desk but this one was magswipe only (the Courtyard I stayed at prior in Detroit in April was contact chip/swipe but no contactless). At the same SFO CY their version of the bistro (different name) was also freedompay but a smaller ingenico terminal that was contactless and accepted chip.

PrendellHiggins

Just came back from a trip to the Netherlands and Ireland, and it was quite depressing how much contactless there is compared to USA. Didn't have a single issue paying with my American Visa Debit card anywhere via Google Pay. Taxis, transit card machines, restaurants, hotels, and all shops I went to all took NFC.

One con I will point out is that that both Amsterdam's OV Chip Card and Dublin's Leap are both severely lacking in online infrastructure. The Leap top up app didn't work for me and OV requires you to visit a machine to add money. Most American transit cards are much better in this regard.

Also seems these countries share an issue with America which is that there are zero NFC-enabled third party ATMs and very few first party ones.

tmiw

I recently came back from a trip to SW Ohio and honestly, besides the Marriott I previously mentioned, Kroger and restaurants, I was able to use contactless for basically everything. A fair number of places (especially at the convention I went to) did insert my card for me, though, but if I wanted to be That Guy™ I probably could have insisted they hand me their Square, etc. readers.

Also, speaking of which, someone next to me on one of my return flights did buy alcohol in flight. Unfortunately their card didn't have a chip (??) so the FA swiped it, meaning I couldn't see how well the contactless readers they use worked.

Majuki

I agree that contactless payments are almost universally available in the US, and I imagine if I was doing mobile payments the percentage of my transactions that are contactless would be even higher. For instance, I was at a McDonald's drive through yesterday, and I saw the terminal with the handle ready to pass through the window. Since I was using the physical card, I just handed the card to the cashier, and the cashier inserted the card. It's the same thing at my local Starbucks. If the employee sees a customer paying with a physical card, the employee angles the terminal to insert the card even though contactless is enabled on the terminal.

As another metric, when my septuagenarian parents in the Midwest are using the contactless feature on their cards without prompting or instruction on my part, I'd say contactless payments have reached the mainstream.

tmiw

Speaking of restaurants, Skyline Chili has an interesting setup in that it's basically a sit-down restaurant that also has a drive-thru. I don't know about the drive-thru but if you eat inside, you pay at the counter when you're done. No problems with tapping there as a result.

Majuki

That's like the setup at Steak 'n Shake. I haven't been inside one in nearly 8 years, so I don't know how their payments systems work now.

scibot

Murphy's Express has the same issue with their Lane/3000s but they work just fine at Raising Cane's. It took like 5 to 7 seconds of holding to read a contactless card at Murphy the 2nd time trying yesterday and it failed to read the first time.. Really defeats the purpose of contactless but it works just fine at the Wayne pumps. It should be instant like the pumps are..

cbn42

I wouldn't say that just yet. As of now, 5 of the 10 largest merchants in the US have contactless enabled. Plenty of sit-down restaurants and smaller merchants don't as well. I just checked my card statement, and 12 of my last 20 in-person purchases were at places that accept NFC.

Oh, and then there's the chain with the most locations in the country, the USPS, where the employees keep saying "we don't accept Apple Pay" and then freak out when my MST payment goes through.

tmiw

Oh yeah, we're definitely not at 100% merchant acceptance (and we may never reach such, either, especially if something like Amazon's "Just Walk Out" technology or some other card not present type thing gains traction among customers). However, even compared to a year ago, people seem way more okay with the concept now.

Speaking of not reaching 100% merchant acceptance, UA is apparently getting rid of all card acceptance equipment on board and requiring people to either use their app or have their CC on file for onboard purchases. Good luck with that, I guess, considering how in-flight Wi-Fi in general doesn't exactly have the best reliability record.

PrendellHiggins

That technology allows for contactless cards to be used instead of a Prime Code.
I'm sure either Visa or MC will mandate contactless acceptance eventually... perhaps when magstripe goes away in 2027.

cbn42

That sounds like a good way of discouraging purchases. Many people won't think ahead and put their CC on file before the flight. I wonder if they have data suggesting that only frequent fliers tend to buy things onboard.

tmiw

The spokesperson in the video claimed you can tap but there's no indication that this was enabled at the time of the video:



(Also, the Lane/3000 PIN pad seems overkill for this application, but then again, the unattended readers would require multiple devices.)

Additionally, Hudson is probably one of those places where some sort of app based solution wouldn't work well, whereas a fair number of other stores that'd adopt something like this have some sort of loyalty system they'd rather people use; I can see some of them tying Just Walk Out to having a CC on file. Plus, curbside pickup/online ordering is still increasing in popularity, which of course doesn't use any card present hardware at all.

I would have guessed it'd mainly be people who travel for work (and thus can expense onboard meals) or very infrequent flyers who aren't aware that the airlines haven't really had free meals onboard in domestic Y for at least a decade now. Though I guess (1) is a subset of frequent flyers, too.