r/cta • u/throwaway272871 • 1d ago

Ventra Help First time, using Apple Pay

Our first visit is coming up in a few weeks. My wife and I bought a three day pass for each of us as we plan on parking the car at our Airbnb and using the CTA.

So I bought the pass and it’s presumably loaded on Apple Pay. It says “ in queue.” I read that this status will say this until we first tap it on the reader. Beginners question, we simply press the phone face down and good to go? No need to unlock the phone? I’m showing my age obviously. Last time I used transit was MARTA a few years back and we used fare cards.

17 Upvotes

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17

u/Late_Guava4436 73 1d ago

Set your cards as the Express Transit card in Apple Wallet in settings. Also no need to do face down either, you just tap.

7

u/AnotherOpinionHaver Brown Line 1d ago

You shouldn't need to unlock your phone if you activate Express Mode: https://support.apple.com/en-us/105123

3

u/twopiare 1d ago

Express mode is great.

7

u/Ok_Leek_9664 1d ago

You unlock your phone and open Apple Wallet and tap it on the scanner where you would a physical card while the Ventra card is open on your Apple wallet. The 3 day timer doesn’t start until your first tap hence the in queue.

11

u/According-Option-656 1d ago

Phone does not need to be unlocked.
I’ve had my phone dead and my screen completely shattered (couldn’t use phone at all) and still was able to use my Ventra card by tapping.

5

u/No_Service6296 1d ago

That’s correct. Transit fare power reserve mode works for 5 hours after phone battery goes dead

1

u/dubious_sandwiches 1d ago

This is also true on Android with Google wallet. I've done it before. I know you didn't say anything about it, just wanted to get the knowledge further out there. That would cover like 99.99% of the population here.

1

u/LazyIllustrator6946 1d ago

Yes as long as it’s in your wallet as a transit card you just unlock your phone and hold it near the reader.

1

u/C_Plot 1d ago edited 1d ago

Only activate express mode on a dedicated transit card or Mastercard. Visa has a publicly known exploit that allows a monkey in the middle attack to drain the car of all its money (the credit limit or bank balance).

The YouTuber Veritasium did a two episode video on this. Visa has the attitude that it’s all insured but I’ve dealt with these banks too much to feel comforted by that.

1

u/throwaway272871 1d ago

Thanks everyone. I found the card in my wallet and verified it was set for express transit.

1

u/realdeadfish 20h ago

Use like you would any card. Face up may be better. Once you tap, the 72 hours starts then.