My biggest issue with Apple Pay is the lack of merchant acceptance. The banks seem enthusiastic about it because, at least in theory, it reduces fraud. They are happy to pay 0.15% to Apple for that benefit. It also keeps the credit card system intact which keeps them collecting a fee for each and every transaction. However, I have been able to use Apple Pay about five times in six months. None of our usual merchants take it. So, while I really like it, it just is not that useful to me at the moment.
One cool thing I was able to do on a recent trip was to pay a restaurant check using Apple Pay through the Open Table app. We made our dinner reservation on Open Table as usual. Once in the restaurant and seated, the app recognized us being there and alerted us and our server that we had the capability to pay through the app. We confirmed that with our server, and from that point forward we could see our bill in the app as items were ordered. When finished, we brought up the final tab in the app, added an appropriate tip, and paid using Apple Pay. The server was notified that we had paid-in-full, and a copy of the bill including tip was sent to us by email. Very sleek, and very cool.