Yesterday, the MTA started spending the giant surplus they revealed Wednesday by selling the holiday Metrocard, their holiday gift to New Yorkers. While riders can purchase the cards now, the special Metrocards can't be used until next week. The special card can be used from November 23rd through January 2nd, but there are only 250,000 cards that allow for 41-days of unlimited subway riding fun. In addition to being limited in numbers, the cards can only be purchased at token booths (if they're still open) with cash or a TransitCheck.
While NY1 says it might not be a good idea to buy the card if your current card overlaps with the usage dates, there might be one way to get around that. If you purchased your Metrocard with a credit card, you could "lose" that card and get a refund. It's almost like two gifts from the MTA in one!
For those that don't buy the special card will get an additional, it's not all bad news. If you activate a montly card, you get four bonus days and if you activate a weekly card, you get one bonus day. Finally, those using a pay-per-ride will pay just $1 per ride on weekends between Thanksgiving and New Year's and $1 for the last week of the year. Whew. If that was too confusing, there's always the MTA website for the holiday bonus.
Has anyone out there bought their holiday card yet?
