Choosing a rail pass for Switzerland/Austria trip

For Switzerland get yourself a Swiss Half Fare Card. It gives you 50% discount on all your travels for 1 month. It's probably the best financial deal for your Swiss Travels.

I would not use Eurail -> overpriced, overkill, required reservations not included, etc

2) We're told that from Lautenbrunnen the lifts can be expensive, but I haven't found how to price them! Any tips on finding out this info? Is there a way to search for schedules/prices for these lifts? And whether or not the swiss flexi pass would cover the full or only half cost?

You can price them at sbb.ch just like a train. Here I input Lauterbrunnen to Kleine Scheidigg and it shows a 14.00 CHF fare. With a week in Lauterbrunnen last year, we found a Berner Oberland Regional Pass (8 day) was perfect, and we paired that with a Swiss Half-Fare card for a couple of train trips and some time in Zermatt. I figured we saved 552 CHF in 11 nights in Switzerland.

We bought Vorteilscards for an Austrian trip. at 29 Euros per person (seniors) we had 1/2 price fares throughout the country.

Careful, the first fare shown on the results page assumes you already have a Half Fare card. I show 14.90 CHF for Lauterbrunnen to Kleine Scheidegg. But if you just bought a ticket at the station without a Half Fare card, the price would be 29.80 CHF.

For longer journeys between Austria and Switzerland, look at supersaver tickets. These are advance purchase, nonrefundable, non-changeable tickets for a specific train, date and time. For instance, Zurich to Salzburg is 112 CHF bought at the station, but 51 CHF bought 3 months in advance. With a Swiss Half Fare card, the walk-up price is 76 CHF, but the supersaver remains at 51 CHF. If you had both the Swiss Half Fare card and an Austrian Vorteil card, the walk-up price is 60 CHF.

If you choose a 2-country Eurail Select Pass, there are no required reservations on your route. Optional seat reservations for a longer, international ride cost about 4 euro per person. This pass gives you 25% discounts around Lauterbrunnen and also covers Swiss lake boats on the counted train travel days. Unfortunately, you have missed the recent extra-day offer, so the current price of this pass is (for instance) $355 per person for 8 days or $400 per person for 10 travel days within a month in 2nd class.

Here are several places that show you the bonuses of the above pass as well as the Swiss Pass or Half-Fare Card: Select pass purchase area (click on Bonuses); our Swiss rail page and the JungfrauBahn site which shows local fares and discounts (click the map link).

I had a Swiss-French combo pass and it got me a discount on my trip from Bern to the Schilthorn, because the pass doesn't work past Interlaken. You show your pass to a human at any train station ticket office and they'll do the math for you.

You are right, Sam! I neglected to take that transaction to completion! I still think the BO Regional Pass is the best deal for an extended time in the area. We've always made good use of it.