United Will Accept Apple Pay and Other Contactless Payments for Inflight Purchases

United is adding contactless payments — including Apple Pay — as a payment methods for inflight purchases like snacks and alcoholic drinks.

As confirmed by The Points Guy, the airline announced the change in an internal memo to flight attendants. The change will let United flyers pay for inflight purchases with a contactless credit card, debit card, or digital wallet like Apple Pay.

This change is a bigger deal than you might think for hungry flyers. Here’s why.

United Adding Contactless Payments for Inflight Purchases

Until now, travelers hoping to buy inflight snacks or drinks had to link their credit or debit card to the United Airlines mobile app before traveling. If you forgot to do this, you were out of luck if you wanted to buy something during your flight.

Thankfully, this is no longer the case. Starting today, flight attendants can process contactless payments using iPhones for inflight purchases. This is made possible buy the iPhone’s Tap to Pay technology, which allows iPhones to accept contactless payments without the need for extra hardware.

Inflight payments should work with any contactless payment method, including Google Pay. If you have one, now’s a good time to add your United MileagePlus credit card to your digital wallet. These cards offer a 25% discount on inflight purchases like snacks and Wi-Fi.

If you prefer, you still can pay for inflight purchases with a payment method linked to your United account. You also can preorder snacks and drinks up to 24 hours prior to departure in the United mobile app.

United also accepts MileagePlus miles as payment for inflight snacks and drinks, but it isn’t a good deal at less than 1 cent per point in value. We value MileagePlus miles at an average of 1.2 cents each when redeemed for travel.

It’s worth noting that American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have been accepting contactless payments for inflight purchases for some time now. Regardless, it’s good to see United finally catch up to its competitors and make it easier for travelers to buy snacks onboard.

Final Thoughts

Starting today, travelers can pay for inflight purchases on United flights with contactless credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets. This is a positive for United flyers since they’ll no longer have to link a payment method to their United account before boarding.