JetBlue Flying The Friendly Skies With Apple Pay

After four months of predictions, Apple Pay is actually hitting the stratosphere.  Literally.  Starting next week, passengers on some JetBlue Airways flights will be able to use Apple Pay to buy food and drinks once cruising altitude is reached.  Users will also be able to use Apple Pay to upgrade their seats.

JetBlue is the first airline to fly the friendly skies with Apple, which presents an interesting use case for the mobile payment system. After all, sitting wedged into a seat is one of the few experiences when pulling out a credit card  is actually noticeably less easy than paying by phone.

JetBlue will also allow customers to make payments from their Apple Watches when that tech debuts later this year.

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

To make the payments possible, JetBlue has replaced its old mPay system, using instead custom outfitted iPad Minis with NFC-capable cases.  The new devices are being issued to 3,500 inflight crew members.

The iPads can also accept conventional plastic credit cards, for those flying sans compatible Apple Product.

Passengers will be able to use Apple Pay to complete purchases through JetBlue’s own mobile app staring in Q3 2015.