Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Passbook is just awesome!!

A

Allenbf

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 7, 2012
351
0
Elsewhere, USA
I just wanted to share my experience and hopefully hear of others' experience.

This weekend I was able to use Passbook for the first time. Walked into my local Target store, which conveniently has a Starbucks inside. Received a notification on my lock screen that one of my "favorite" Starbucks was nearby, swiped to unlock and paid for my Grande White Chocolate Mocha :)

After my wife finished her shopping at Target, I opened passbook and had the cashier scan the mobile coupon. Worked like a charm and saved about $3 off $5 worth of frozen pizzas.

Then yesterday, I downloaded the Gyft app, and they gave me a $5 Sephora card for downloading the app and adding to Passbook. Haven't used it yet but it's sitting in Passbook, just waiting for my wife to use it. I would love to use it for a flight or otherwise but I don't have an excuse, yet. But so far, I believe Passbook is probably the unsung hero of iOS 6.

Anyone else have similar experiences? What apps are you using that offer the Passbook feature?

**I will say, Apple isn't doing a great job on giving users a way to discover apps that work with Passbook. There should be a category in the App store or something**
 
Allenbf said:
I just wanted to share my experience and hopefully hear of others' experience.

This weekend I was able to use Passbook for the first time. Walked into my local Target store, which conveniently has a Starbucks inside. Received a notification on my lock screen that one of my "favorite" Starbucks was nearby, swiped to unlock and paid for my Grande White Chocolate Mocha :)

After my wife finished her shopping at Target, I opened passbook and had the cashier scan the mobile coupon. Worked like a charm and saved about $3 off $5 worth of frozen pizzas.

Then yesterday, I downloaded the Gyft app, and they gave me a $5 Sephora card for downloading the app and adding to Passbook. Haven't used it yet but it's sitting in Passbook, just waiting for my wife to use it. I would love to use it for a flight or otherwise but I don't have an excuse, yet. But so far, I believe Passbook is probably the unsung hero of iOS 6.

Anyone else have similar experiences? What apps are you using that offer the Passbook feature?

**I will say, Apple isn't doing a great job on giving users a way to discover apps that work with Passbook. There should be a category in the App store or something**
Click to expand...

There is a place in the App store for what passbook apps are available. Its in the featured section, scrolling the top featured section.
 
Allenbf said:
**I will say, Apple isn't doing a great job on giving users a way to discover apps that work with Passbook. There should be a category in the App store or something**
Click to expand...

There is. Maybe not the most convenient. App store>Featured>swipe upper section to get to passbook apps.

LOL, not fast enough. ^
 
Yea, I used the Target last Friday. Starbucks this morning, reloaded one of my giftcards just so I could use it LOL.

Have Delta plane tickets for a flight Nov 2. Crossing my fingers Delta updates their app before then!

Hobbit comes out in December. Plan to use Fandango then.
 
Dude. You went to Starbucks At Target and didn't get the buy one get one coffee deal?

I guess this is one of those things that makes Passbook "good but not great". It gave the convenience of paying easily but didn't inform you of the coupons that Shopkick or Facebook mentioned. Hopefully they could integrate deal alerts too in the future.
 
Menel said:
Yea, I used the Target last Friday. Starbucks this morning, reloaded one of my giftcards just so I could use it LOL.

Have Delta plane tickets for a flight Nov 2. Crossing my fingers Delta updates their app before then!
Click to expand...

Good luck! That would be sweet. I also noticed that American Express has updated their card to work with Passbook, but it's not like you can pay with it - it is just a convenient way to see activity on your account. Great to see the major players working on it, though.

----------
urkel said:
Dude. You went to Starbucks At Target and didn't get the buy one get one coffee deal?

I guess this is one of those things that makes Passbook "good but not great". It gave the convenience of paying easily but didn't inform you of the coupons that Shopkick or Facebook mentioned. Hopefully they could integrate deal alerts too in the future.
Click to expand...

I couldn't, because I also used my "free drink" birthday card, it was about to expire. :) Agree with you, I was telling my wife the same thing, once it is all linked, will be awesome to get your "in store" coupon notifications and be able to pay, all at the same time.

----------
whsbuss said:
There is a place in the App store for what passbook apps are available. Its in the featured section, scrolling the top featured section.
Click to expand...


Thanks for this, friend, but these are the same ones as before. I'd like to see Apple have a category for ALL of them, instead of the featured ones. For now I'm checking 3rd party websites.

Thanks again
 
Nice to hear something positive on passbook. I've been using it for Starbucks and Target with great success as well. What we need is for more apps to leverage it; like shopkick.
 
For some reason the gyft app cards do not add to my passbook.

Edit: finally they added. Not sure what the deal was but its in there now.
 
Last edited:
I used mine at starbucks this weekend. Pretty cool and quicker than pulling out the debit card an all. Mine only complaint is the location stuff has yet to work right. It didn't pop up at walgreens or starbucks.
 
matrix07 said:
Looks like people didn't have problem with scanners. Good news.
Click to expand...

I thought that might be an issue since I have a power support anti-glare protector on mine but it scanned just fine at both walgreens and starbucks.
 
MozMan68 said:
Just saw update to United Airlines app..Passbook support added.
Click to expand...
The previous version already supported Passbook (and iOS 6 and the new Iphone 5 screen resolution). Not sure what today's update really added. I used the app with Passbook for a flight to Hawaii recently and it worked well. So much easier than unlocking, entering the passcode, finding the app, waiting for it to launch, and then keeping the screen from auto-locking again while you are waiting in the security line. :)

Just two small niggles:
- The gate information lags. I didn't see the gate updated in the Passbook ticket even an hour after it was available in the United app
- The pop-up on the lockscreen is not location-based yet, it appears time-based on the day of departure

Otherwise I think this is the best use of Passbook so far.
 
I'd love it if I could have my tickets from StubHub put in passbook so I don't have to print them out.
 
Rigby said:
The previous version already supported Passbook (and iOS 6 and the new Iphone 5 screen resolution). Not sure what today's update really added. I used the app with Passbook for a flight to Hawaii recently and it worked well. So much easier than unlocking, entering the passcode, finding the app, waiting for it to launch, and then keeping the screen from auto-locking again while you are waiting in the security line. :)

Just two small niggles:
- The gate information lags. I didn't see the gate updated in the Passbook ticket even an hour after it was available in the United app
- The pop-up on the lockscreen is not location-based yet, it appears time-based on the day of departure

Otherwise I think this is the best use of Passbook so far.
Click to expand...

Sorry..thought it was just Delta so far...I only fly United occasionally anyway.
 
MozMan68 said:
Just saw update to United Airlines app..Passbook support added.
Click to expand...

Rigby said:
The previous version already supported Passbook (and iOS 6 and the new Iphone 5 screen resolution). Not sure what today's update really added. I used the app with Passbook for a flight to Hawaii recently and it worked well. So much easier than unlocking, entering the passcode, finding the app, waiting for it to launch, and then keeping the screen from auto-locking again while you are waiting in the security line. :)

Just two small niggles:
- The gate information lags. I didn't see the gate updated in the Passbook ticket even an hour after it was available in the United app
- The pop-up on the lockscreen is not location-based yet, it appears time-based on the day of departure

Otherwise I think this is the best use of Passbook so far.
Click to expand...


We are flying to Dublin on Wednesday with United so we will be using Passbook all the way. Very excited to try this out.
 
I'm glad to hear you've had a good experience with it. I haven't had the chance to use it yet. You're right, there needs to be a way to discover passbook capable apps more easily.

Edit: If you open passbook and have no apps installed, it will take you to a section of the app store for passbook apps. I can see ticketmaster fandango and starbucks being very usefull.
 
My fiancee recently used our Ikea Family card that we added to our passbooks. Worked like a charm and got our 50% off the samtid desk lamp!
 
matrix07 said:
Looks like people didn't have problem with scanners. Good news.
Click to expand...

Why would they? I do admit that i have that nervous feeling before they scan but Scanning the Starbucks or Target app has been working fine for years so there's no reason for it to not work with Passbook.
 
urkel said:
Why would they? I do admit that i have that nervous feeling before they scan but Scanning the Starbucks or Target app has been working fine for years so there's no reason for it to not work with Passbook.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about the glass, the reflection and that fact that people want to test it so bad so if the first try is a miss it will hurt their first impressions. From the posts here I relieved to hear that's not the case. Good news indeed.
But the lag on boarding gate update is not good news. :(
 
matrix07 said:
But the lag on boarding gate update is not good news. :(
Click to expand...
Note that this is specific to United (probably their push notification servers are not fully operational yet), and not an issue with Passbook itself. And you should always check the gate at the airport displays anyway, since online updates are often slow even in the airline apps.
 
kuhtang said:
My fiancee recently used our Ikea Family card that we added to our passbooks. Worked like a charm and got our 50% off the samtid desk lamp!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, I have a visit to IKEA soon and now I'll have to add this one for the hell of it!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back