Passengers on select JetBlue flights will be able to purchase food and drinks using their iPhone, USA Today reports. Customers will also reportedly be able to use the payment service to upgrade to any open premium seat once the flight has started.
Payments will be handled by airline employees using iPad minis with NFC-equipped cases. Over 3,500 of these devices have been issued to JetBlue staff. The cases will also accept regular credit cards, and will serve as a full replacement for the existing in-flight payment terminals.
Apple internet services chief Eddy Cue told USA Today that the move was likely to cause other airlines to follow suit:
“Somebody else doing it always puts pressure on the other guy,” says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president for Internet software and services.
When the Apple Watch launches in April, users will be able to take advantage of in-flight Apple Pay using that device and certain older iPhone models as well.
Aside from taking payments, the new iPads being issued to flight staff will include an app designed for JetBlue employees to locate frequent fliers or those who are celebrating a birthday, as well as the complete in-flight manual.
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Why did Apple NOT think to include NFC on the newest iPad models so that they could be used as payment terminals? I mean, whitout the need of cases and all.
I wonder: Does the iPhone 6/6+ have the necessary hardware to act as a payment terminal? I realize that it might be OS- or ROM- level software that’d have to be changed, not just an app, but is the hardware there?
And, if IIRC, the newest iPads have NFC chips in them (something about it being necessary for TouchID), they just don’t have NFC *antennas*, which makes this even more stupid on Apple’s part. I don’t remember where I saw that though: maybe one of the tear-downs.
Gah. s/if IIRC/IIRC/. (Too bad it’s not possible to edit comments.)
To make more money on the cases? Wonder if they’ll be sold to the public or correct this issue on the next iPad?
That would be next I guess but it is weird to pull an iPad to blink?! LOL I would rather stick with credit card.
Read carefully – these cases will also be credit card readers. Essentially, Apple Pay is going to be one of the payment options
Because they will never embed a chip reader, and swipe channel either. Right now, retailers are afraid of alienating customers by not accepting traditional payments. I also think Apple is afraid people will use iPads to pay at checkouts, which looks ridiculous to everyone in line – rather than cool – a big part of how Apple gets it’s tech adopted by the masses.
Apple did include NFC chip in iPad Air 2 and Mini 3. They just didn’t include NFC antenna. That mean, with external NFC antenna, iPad Air2/Mini 3 can act as POS to accept Apple Pay/NFC payments.
This is great! Now I can use my LG G3 to pay on jet blue flights!
Nope:
JetBlue executive Rachel McCarthy said that Apple Pay would be the only mobile wallet accepted at this time. Consumers using Google Wallet or other competing services could take advantage of mobile payment convenience “down the road.”
“down the road” when all android devices with Google Wallet can connect to internet to authorize the transaction at POS. Apple Pay doesn’t need internet connection or cell sign to do that.
The most amazing thing about Jet Blue’s announcement is how they fulfill and validate the credit card requests. Do they use a satellite or do they just pool them and then confirm on the ground.
Other then that, this is a nice win for Apple Pay and a new niche. Could cruise ships, ferries, be far behind.
Thanks JetBlue.
Airlines have been accepting credit card payments while in flight for many years… this is no different…
Yes, it is. CC used in flight had information stored by airline POS and they can verify the purchase with network connection or even later on the ground. Apple Pay only give POS a token code. Either, POS will accept the code and verify it later on ground or instantly verify during the transaction with the internet connected to the POS.
I must say Apple is very clever in making Pay synonymous with NFC and apparently getting PR deals with companies to market Pay or exclusively support it over competitors.
In this case they don’t need an exclusivity agreement. Google Wallet requires an Internet connection (at least once per day or if you want to switch cards): which is highly inconvenient on a plane!
Exactly, people who are unfamiliar of how Apple Pay actually works dismissed it by saying its like Google Wallet. But its far more superior in terms of use and technology. I think Apple Pay is perfect example of Apple’s thesis – “while some focus on being first, we focus on being first that matter”
For a layman it is unclear what NFC actually is or what it does. I think this is why it never really took off. NFC is tech allowing things like Apple Pay to function, but a layman does not need to know that – its the end product that matters