City Buses: Tap-and-pay smartphone with no cell service

Marty, I’m interested in the same thing. I’m not paying for cell service for an upcoming trip to Europe. I tried to use my phone today to buy groceries and turned on the airplane mode. It worked and I still went home with my bananas!
I was under the impression if I use my phone to tap for a ticket, a paper copy will come out of the machine and I can then get it validated. I don’t know why I think that because I am techno challenged. I would appreciate a response from one of the experts on the forum. Thanks.

Getting a paper receipt is purely a function of the city you're in. We've experienced tap-to-pay for transit in some places, purchase of paper tickets that require machine validation in others, and even using apps specific to the transit system. Everyplace is different. But most are much easier if you have mobile data.

My recommendation is to buy a cheap prepaid eSIM data plan (I got 30 days, 10GB for 10.80 euros from Manet Mobile yesterday), because data availability is increasingly important for making things in Europe work easier.

I agree that it depends on the city. In Brussels when you step on the tram or bus you don't get a printout but you do get the transaction recorded on your bank statements (so it shows up as one of your transactions online, after a day or two). No idea about your destinations, just offering parallel advice.

Lavandula

In Apple Pay at least, you can go to your wallet, tap the card and it shows all the latest transactions. I don't think you need a cellular connection for this.

Rather than agonizing over how to validate a cell phone purchase to a fare Inspector without cell service, just tap your credit card and be done with it.

In Rome, with the terminals on buses & trams, as well at the terminals at Metro turnstiles, no paper ticket is issued.

If you're going to be using mass transit frequently, it may be easier to buy a paper multi-day ticket and validate it the first time you use it. ATAC also offers their own reloadable tap cards if you prefer not to use your credit card.

https://www.atac.roma.it/en/tickets-and-passes/tap-go

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. Turns out there's a local transit strike on October 5th, the day before my Rick Steves 7 Days in Rome trip begins (and I think I'll be issued a week's pass when the tour starts). But I'm definitely going to do some grocery shopping this week with my phone in airplane mode and see if I can see recent purchases for the card in the Apple Wallet. This inquiring mind wants to know.

You should be able to see recent transactions for Apple Pay in your wallet - just go to your wallet and tap the card that is stored there. It will give you all the transactions made via Apple Pay (but not all the transactions for that specific credit card, ie doesn't show payments made using the physical card). The only question is will it update if you don't have cell service. Google search says it does, but be interested in your real-time experience!

Last June we were in several cities that had tap to pay for public transit. I believe it was Amsterdam where we tapped our cards upon entering the train or etc. Once or twice an inspector came with a machine, and we were asked to tap our cards on that, and that allowed them to see if we had paid. I’m assuming if we had used our phones, we would have been asked to tap our phones instead. The inspections didn’t happen on every ride, just random.
Maybe that helps with your question?

Our experience in the Netherlands was as Barbara G described the once or twice we were asked. We rode trains and public transport daily. We tapped in and out with our credit card. We did not have Verizon cell service. it was flawless. As a recovering Luddite, It is my most enduring happy memory of a terrific 3 week trip.

Another update: I put the phone in airplane mode and successfully tapped it to the machine for a purchase. However I had to double-press a side button AND have my face recognized. AND the "latest transactions" section didn't show that purchase, at least not right away. After I turned cellular back on it showed up.

Conclusions:
Markcw, you're right, it would have been easier to dig the credit card out of my purse, which I was hoping I wouldn't have to bother with (I wear the phone on its own cross-body lanyard).
TheOriginal Rebecca, it appears I need at least wifi to see transactions made by the phone.
jphbucks, I'm giving serious thought to an additional esims card, thanks for the suggestion.

Many thanks, everyone!