BO itinerary - Swiss 4d flexi vs BO pass?

My gut is the BO Regional Pass is your best bet as it covers everything except Basel to Muerren and you have to pay a portion of the Schilthorn. The Swiss Flex Pass covers the Schilthorn but not anything above Wengen on day 4.

Entering Switzerland at Basel, the BORP validity will start at Bern or Luzern and departing via Zurich you only need to buy a ticket Luzern to Zurich as the pass will take you to Luzern. Because of this a 6 day Pass might be economical.

Also consider the 30-day Half Fare Card, if the total amount of tickets per person exceeds 240 CHF.

I have a different take on this from Laurel. I think a 4-day Flex will be better (but I make no judgment as to how that might compare to a Half Fare Card for the adults and free Family Card for the children).

A 4-day BO pass costs 250 CHF, but there is no Family Card included for free, so you will pay an additional 30 CHF per child for them to travel with you on the pass. Total cost 310 CHF, exactly the same as a 4-day Flex Swiss Travel Pass.

The Swiss Travel Pass fully covers the Schilthorn and gives you 50% off the cable car from Maennlichen to Kleine Scheidegg and the train from KS back down to Wengen.

The BO Pass fully covers the Maennlichen lift and train from KS to Wengen, but you only get 50% off the Schilthorn. So there are opposite. I did not check prices but I suspect the better benefit is the Schilthorn ride.

The BO pass only covers from Bern, so you will have to pay for all four people from Basel to Bern (41 CHF) and from Bern to Zurich (56 CHF each to the airport). I honestly do not know if kids pay less as we have never bought childrens’ tickets in Switzerland, we always use a pass.

Either one will only cover four days, so you will have to pay full price tickets on one “uncovered “ day. The BO pass is for consecutive days only, so your uncovered day will be either you first or last day: the long travel day from Basel to Mürren or from Mürren to Zurich Flughafen. The less expensive of these would be the trip from Basel. I need to look up the price but it will be a lot for four people, even if there is a discount for children, which I do not know about.

With the Flex Pass, you can choose to use it to cover the most expensive four days and buy tickets for the one least expensive day, which would be your Interlaken day. Mürren to Interlaken is 18,80 each way, so you need to multiply that by 4X for the adults and 4X for whatever the child price is. It will still be cheaper than Basel to Mürren for the four of you. But if I were you, I would re-think that day’s hike and choose something close to Mürren, like the walk (or funicular ride) up to Allmendhubel and then the Children’s Adventure trail or other trail down from there. I say this knowing nothing about the caves at Interlaken (never heard of them) but I am not a cave explorer.

In the end, I believe the Swiss Travel Pass 4-day Flex will cost you less.

And now I need to go look at child prices on SBB to be more helpful.

And I need to add that I looked at prices between Bern and Murren instead of Luzern as Laurel posted, as Bern is the more direct route from Basel, and the faster route to Zurich Flughafen. The Interlaken to Luzern train route is scenic, but if were headed to the airport, I would go via Bern.

OK, so I looked up child prices on SBB, and they are cheaper. From Basel to Mürren, each adult pays 79, 80 CHF, and an accompanied child with a Kinder Tageskarte pays 16 CHF. So for 2 adults and 2 children that is 191,60 CHF for the uncovered journey, using the BO pass.

The Kinder Tageskarte was automatically applied when I went through the pricing, and I have no idea how that works, Maybe someone can explain. But if you use the Flexi Pass option this journey is fully covered so the issue is moot.

My analysis shows that buying 2 30-day Half Fare cards and getting the free Family Card is the lowest cost.
You still have to buy a ticket for every journey, but since it is always half price, and the kids are free, it saves the most money.

Great analysis Lola! Truly above and beyond. A good example of how difficult it can be to figure out the right Swiss Pass combo. I didn’t think about the kid factor. Good job!

Thank you everybody for your help!
We purchased 4d CH Flexi Passes, and used them on Days 1-3 and 5. Day 4 we actually changed itinerary and stayed in Murren area, hiking to Gimmelwald and taking advantage of Murren's pool for a low-key day for the kids.
The Swiss Flexi Pass, I believe, was the best deal. We had an outstanding trip, fantastic weather, unforgettable! Thanks for everyone's help.