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Since the advent of contactless ticketing, there is no need to reserve a ticket for the Malpensa Express trains any more. The contactless ticketing system is called Pay & Go:
The contactless payment system for traveling on Malpensa Express. Just bring your credit card or NFC smartphone close to the sensor on the access turnstile.
With Pay & Go your credit card becomes the ticket!
Pay with Pay & Go for the Malpensa Express Milan - Malpensa Airport or Malpensa Airport - Milan ticket.
It works like this:
How do you pay it
Place the contactless credit card (credit, debit, prepaid) of the Mastercard, Maestro, Visa, American Express circuits or the smartphone with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology at one of the dedicated turnstiles / totems in the Milan Cadorna stations, Milano Centrale, Milano Porta Garibaldi, Milano Bovisa and Malpensa T1 and T2.
Get on board
Your ticket is your credit card (or smartphone with NFC), you don't need anything else! You don't have to wait for emails or notifications, sit on board the Malpensa Express and enjoy the journey. Upon arrival, where there are the exit turnstiles, you will only have to re-support the payment method used at the entrance.
The price of online tickets is exactly the same as the price of physical or contactless tickets. Hence, there is no real advantage in reserving a ticket. In addition, seats are not allocated on these trains, which means that having reserved a ticket does not guarantee you a seat on the train. You can also travel standing up so, unless the train is mad packed, you should always find a space.
In Malpensa Airport, the so-called totems for contactless payment are usually found right next to the escalators giving you access to the platform. For example, in Terminal 1 you can see it circled in blue in the image below:
In Cadorna FN train station, the totems are actually the physical access gates to the platform, as shown in the image below:
FYI contactless payment is also used on the Metro in Milan. Which means no more queueing to buy tickets. In both the Metro and the Malpensa Express you must tap out with the same contactless payment method you used to get on the train, otherwise you'll end up paying for the longest fare of the day.