waw74

Your terminology is a little off

The NYC subway uses regular Apple Pay, You can pay at the turnstile the same way you pay at a store, even without an express transit card selected on your device.   You just have to authenticate using faceID, passcode, or the side button on your watch.  You can also use any contactless payment on the turnstiles, like a physical card  or android pay. 

  Express transit is an add-on to Apple Pay, it allows you to specify a card in your wallet to use without having to authenticate on certain transit systems. You can just tap your watch or phone on the turnstile. It will also continue to work for several hours after your phone has shutdown due to low battery.

And even if you have an express transit card setup, If you access your wallet in the normal way, you can select a different card to use for that one time you're going through. 

you have a major inaccuracy in this article

applecare+ is included in the iPhone upgrade program, not free
You're still paying the full price for the phone and AppleCare spread over 24 months.