Does anyone actually use Passbook? (1 Viewer)

With Apple Pay scheduled for rollout as soon as this week, I have to ask: Does anyone here actually use Passbook? When it first came out, it seemed like a good idea but so few businesses supported it, I stuck it in a folder with other core apps I never used but couldn't delete. Any thoughts, good or bad?

I have a few things in my passbook. The most used would be my Starbucks card. I have hotel membership cards and a movie reward card as well. I thought at first I would never use it but surprisingly I do use it. I’ll have to look into Apple Pay.

Paperless boarding passes, I use it regularly. But that's it.

Good idea for a topic. I've wondered the same thing myself many times. It'll be interesting to see what people say.

I tried it once for a movie ticket and never again. I got a ticket for a movie at a Regal Cinemas a couple years ago, and they gave me the option of doing it on Passbook instead of printing it at home or at the theater, so I thought I'd give it a shot. When I got there, their scanner just wouldn't scan the image from my phone (seemed to work fine for most of the people using it), and the theater people were kinda rude about it, and instead of making it faster, it actually ended up taking longer to get in than if I had just printed out the ticket in the lobby by swiping my credit card into the kiosk. I just never had a desire to try it again. I've found it's usually pretty easy to print a ticket at home, or to print it at the theater, or to grab a boarding pass from the automated kiosk at the airport, so I just stick with that. I don't want to be in another situation where I wait in line, it's finally my turn, and then their scanner won't read my phone so I have to go back, print it somewhere else, and then wait on line again.

In writing this, I realize that I had one bad experience and never gave it another chance. Maybe that's not fair of me. That's maybe one of the drawbacks of trying to introduce new technology to replace existing ways of doing things that in and of themselves work perfectly fine. Picking up tickets had never been a problem for me before Passbook, it was a problem on Passbook, so I'm happy to continue doing it the way I always used to do it where I never had a problem.

Richard Travale said:

I have a few things in my passbook. The most used would be my Starbucks card. I have hotel membership cards and a movie reward card as well. I thought at first I would never use it but surprisingly I do use it. I’ll have to look into Apple Pay.

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Does Starbucks still make you pre-load their card with money? I.E. Spend money with buying anything immediately.

Johnny Angell said:

Does Starbucks still make you pre-load their card with money? I.E. Spend money with buying anything immediately.

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Starbucks is not a credit company so of course they make you pre-load a card. Why would you think it would be any other way?

Tickets for various events; Duane Reade aka Walgreen rewards; boarding passes

Having just gone back to the iPhone and traveling and using Passbook for
the very first time....

It's okay for what it is.

I had hoped the concept would allow one to scan credit cards and keep that
information on file. I suppose that task will go to Apple Pay.

However, I flew United and Alaska Airlines this week and had my boarding ticket
sent over to Passbook (there are links to do it through both mobile apps), and I
found it kind of convenient to simply click on Passbook when I approached the
gate agent and there was my boarding pass ready to show.

So, yeah, for what it does I suppose it's fine. Don't think I will be using it much
outside of traveling.

Patrick_S said:

Starbucks is not a credit company so of course they make you pre-load a card. Why would you think it would be any other way?

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I have a Kroger card that gets me deals from them without having to pre-load it with cash. It's possible that Starbucks had gone to that model isn't it?

Ronald Epstein said:

Having just gone back to the iPhone and traveling and using Passbook for
the very first time....

It's okay for what it is.

I had hoped the concept would allow one to scan credit cards and keep that
information on file. I suppose that task will go to Apple Pay.

However, I flew United and Alaska Airlines this week and had my boarding ticket
sent over to Passbook (there are links to do it through both mobile apps), and I
found it kind of convenient to simply click on Passbook when I approached the
gate agent and there was my boarding pass ready to show.

So, yeah, for what it does I suppose it's fine. Don't think I will be using it much
outside of traveling.

Click to expand...

Get the United app if you don't already. I check into my flights with it.

Passbook also auto-notifies you near boarding time. From the lock screen, swipe the notice to bring up the boarding pass. I use Passbook itself very little.

Have had the United app for years. Thanks, Dave.

Yeah, you actually need it to transfer boarding ticket into Passbook.

Cool I've been pretty impressed with the United app. Does a good job with check-ins, and allows me to change seating assignments.

Walgreens and REI (rewards), Amtrak (ticketing) Starbucks (payment)

Yeah, at least United does some things right.

Just flew Alaska airlines for the first time going from Seattle to Burbank.

Their planes are so modern compared to United. Every seat has a power
outlet and USB plug.

I was flying first class on United this trip and there wasn't even a power
outlet under the seat.

Shame that United is the main hub out of Newark where I fly out of. Would
prefer a better airline.

Sorry to throw this thread a bit off-course

One more

Have you flown Virgin? Much nicer than United and the risk of the big airlines. (That said, I choose United over Virgin for the frequent flyer miles; I'm flying enough now that it behooves me to collect them.)

Dave,

Have not flown Virgin but I hear it's a great airline.

I'm out of Newark. It's United's big hub. I am invested in their rewards program.

It's really the only airline I fly. They are behind the times, though.

Virgin has three great aspects: New planes; fun 'attitude', no one flies them so they planes are half empty.

When it comes to the big airlines, I think Homer Simpson said it best