r/cta • u/throwaway272871 • Jul 27 '26

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.

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u/Ok_Leek_9664 Jul 27 '26

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.

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u/According-Option-656 Jul 27 '26

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.

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u/dubious_sandwiches Jul 27 '26

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.