“Just Tap Your Phone Like You Do at Home”
At the Howard Beach AirTrain turnstile, a man from Hamburg tried to pay. His phone was German, his wallet was German, and the gate would not open. He tapped again, then again, while the AirTrain to the A train idled and a line of arriving passengers built behind him. OMNY, the MTA’s tap-to-pay system, has been replacing the MetroCard since 2019, and for anyone holding a phone that authorises contactless payment it works. Apple Pay and Google Pay go straight through. A German Girocard in a physical wallet does not. Nobody mentions that next to the departure gate in Frankfurt, and it is only the first of several received wisdoms that need testing.
Belief One: “Contactless Is Contactless, Your Card Will Work”
The hardware does not care where you bank; the network behind the tap is what it reads. A Visa or Mastercard debit from a German bank, loaded into Apple Pay, clears at $2.90 a ride. Seven days of unlimited travel costs $34, and the fare capper stops charging you once you hit that ceiling. The trap is the Girocard, a domestic scheme most terminals abroad simply do not read. Older EC cards without a contactless symbol are worse, forcing you to a ticket machine that wants a signature and a PIN. If your everyday card is a Girocard, carry the credit card instead. Bring the credit card.
Belief Two: “A Weekly Pass Is Always Cheaper”
Not always. The unlimited seven-day pass pays off at around twelve rides, so a couple doing Midtown, museum mornings and one Brooklyn evening will clear it before Wednesday. But if you are the sort of pair who walks forty minutes rather than descend for three stops, you are better off tapping per ride and letting the cap do its work. The daily cap and the weekly cap are different things, and the weekly one only triggers after you have genuinely ridden enough, which is where what a Munich – Cologne ticket usually costs leads people astray. New York prices time, not distance. Coney Island to the Bronx costs one swipe.
Belief Three: “The Subway Runs All Night Everywhere”
This is where the received wisdom breaks hardest, and it is the one that catches German visitors, who arrive from cities where the U-Bahn shuts down at 1am on weekdays and assume the American version must be worse. New York runs 24 hours. The lie is “everywhere.” Weekend track work closes lines by the mile, and the MTA reroutes service with about the warning of a weather app. Before any late or weekend trip, check:
- the specific line and direction, not just the line number
- whether a shuttle bus has replaced the train
- whether your station entrance, not the station, is shut
- how the change affects the return journey
- whether the alternative is just walking
The Part That Actually Decides It
The alternative worth naming is the bus from Port Authority, or a ride-share straight to the hotel door at 11pm with luggage. For a two-person arrival with bags, a flat $70 car split down the middle beats two $11 AirTrain-and-subway fares plus the walk from the station. Beyond that first night, transit wins, which makes the Munich–Cologne route comparison misleading: this is not a city you can walk end to end. If nobody in your party holds a contactless credit card, sort it before you fly. Not at Howard Beach.
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