The good news for overworked flight attendants, I suppose, is that such optimism is driven partly by the rapid growth in consumer acceptance of self-service payments on the ground, from supermarkets and stores to swipe-your-card payment systems at parking lots, airline check-in desks and hotel lobbies.
While it's still too early to say for mobile, as Simplee just launched its mobile app last week, the founders tell us that Simplee's online medical wallet has been able to produce an increase in self-service payments of 17percentt, which has doubled in the last six months.
Leading health groups such as ValleyCare Health System and LifePoint Hospitals are using consumer-driven platforms to unlock consumer demand for self-service payments, with an average of 40percentt of patients shifting to online.
Supermarkets minimise human contact in the interests of efficiency and convenience, most recently by introducing self-service lanes for payment.
The world's first contactless payment, self-service beer pump will be put to the test by consumers during the height of pre-Christmas partying in the UK's bars and pubs.
Online and self-service for billing and payment are commonplace in industries such as retail, banking and energy.
Square's real advantage is simplicity, consistency and a cleanly designed self-service online account and payments dashboard.
This means giving customers more choice in how they shop and pay, and offering options such as self-service, higher threshold contactless payments and offline versions of pay later". – Luke Griffiths, GM, Klarna.
From contactless payments at self-service supermarket tills to online banking, it can seem like the digitisation of money is inevitable.
