Apple Pay Joins The Mile High Club

Fans of Apple Pay will now be able to pay for goods whilst cruising at 35,000 feet following the first deal between the service and a major airline.

From next week, passengers on select JetBlue Airways flights can use Apple Pay on their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets to buy food, drinks and certain other onboard goodies when the plane reaches cruising altitude.

Users will also be able to upgrade to available premium seats, as Apple Pay looks to replace the hassle of struggling to dig out your wallet to pay for goods.

Easy pay

“The sky is definitely not the limit when it comes to mobile payments with Apple Pay,” Marty St. George, a senior vice president at JetBlue, told USA Today.

The service will initially be available on transcontinental flights between New York’s JFK airport and destinations in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with more routes slated to come in March, and JetBlue aiming to have all its flights able to accept Apple Pay by June.

Starting in the third quarter, passengers will be able to use Apple Pay to complete purchases through JetBlue’s own mobile app.

Equipped

JetBlue is issuing more than 3,500 inflight crew members with specially outfitted iPad Minis with NFC-capable cases (see main image) to process Apple Pay transactions alongside traditional debit and credit cards.

The iPads also include an Inflight Service Assistant app with information that helps flight attendants identify frequent fliers or passengers with a birthday, and will soon include the entire inflight manual if approved by the FAA.

Apple Pay was announced alongside the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus back in September, and signed up a million subscribers in just its first three days of use. The service is set to hit the UK within the next few months, and is currently available for use within 90 per cent of shops and banks across the US, looks to replace a customer’s debit or credit card using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology built into the phone.

All clued up on mobile payments? Try our quiz!