When my wife Sharon and I travel to a big city, we try to depend on mass transit when we can. This keeps us from having to pay the hotel parking fees when renting a car, which can be astronomically high (here’s why they charge so much) and does a little bit to help the environment. One city where we almost never rent a car is New York City. We’re able to get from the airport to our hotel using a combination of train, subway, and ride-share if needed. If we’re staying in Manhattan, it’s easy to get around as long as you give yourself enough time, a luxury we typically have when on vacation.
While I’m no expert on how to pay for the MTA, I try to keep up. Before they stopped giving bonuses on reloads, I knew the best way to load my Metrocard so that it didn’t end up with a balance. I even caught on when NY switched to the OMNY system.
Before I learned about this iPhone and Apple Watch feature, I paid for my subway fares using Apple Wallet. But it was a bit of a pain because each time, I had to take out my phone and hold it to my face to unlock the payment. Fortunately, there’s a new feature that makes the process painless.
With the “Express Transit” feature, you can enable your iPhone or Apple Watch to pay your fare without unlocking your phone. All it takes is to tap your device against the reader and your preferred card will be charged your fare.
I did a little more digging and found that Express Transit can be used with many mass transit systems in the US and around the world. A bonus to the feature is that it even works when your phone says it’s out of battery.
I set the feature up for the MTA in New York but wanted to try another transit system. I have a Clipper card in the drawer from our last trip to San Francisco, so I tried to add it to my Apple Wallet.
The process was even easier than adding a payment for the MTA.
All I had to do was say that I wanted to add the Clipper card.
That was it. My Clipper card is now loaded onto my phone. The only downside is that I can no longer use my physical card, only the digital version on my iPhone. I guess for people in the Bay Area, that’s not an issue.
Ever since I’ve set up this feature, Sharon’s used her Apple Watch, and I’ve used my iPhone to pay for rides on the subway when visiting New York.
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