A hopeful note: while the U.S. card-issuing industry has been all but unanimous in going for the less-secure chip-and-signature method with new chip-enabled cards, at least a few are making PIN use possible, at least on some cards.
I just got confirmation from Barclays that while their U.S.-issued cards are primarily chip-and-signature, in PIN-only machines (automated gas stations, train-ticket machines, etc.), they will function as chip-and-PIN with the PIN you have selected.
Sadly, however, the basic Barclays Aviator Red AAdvantage card, formerly US Airways Mastercard, still charges foreign transaction fees, and none of my no-foreign-fee cards seem to have implemented the PIN backup yet.
