American Express cardmembers can now use their accumulated loyalty points to pay for taxi fares in New York City through a partnership with VeriFone.
The programme will roll out on VeriFone's in-taxi devices that process more than 200,000 payments a day in more than 7000 cabs throughout NYC.
At the end of the ride, AmEx members who have chosen to pay by card will be given the option to use points for their ride fare, including tip and tolls.
Leslie Berland, senior vice president, digital partnerships and development at American Express, says: "With this announcement, we're leveraging our unique technology to bring it to life at the most critical commerce touchpoint - the physical point of sale."
The integration is currently limited to New York taxis, but it doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to see it expanded to include other VeriFone point-of-sale systems.
In November 2011, AmEx filed a patent for a system and method for using loyalty rewards as a currency. The patent involves "spending loyalty points over a computerised network to facilitate a transaction".