I have my half fare card on my SBB app. It shows I have the half fare card valid starting next week. When I put in a route after my pass becomes valid I get a certain price; however, if I use the date prior to my pass being valid, I still get the same price.
Is it not calculating my half fare rate, though everything I read says it should. Maybe it always calculates the half fare since it's saved in the app, but then you need to show it when requested and it should have valid applicable dates?
Maybe it always calculates the half fare since it's saved in the app, but then you need to show it when requested and it should have valid applicable dates?
You got it. SBB always defaults to the Half Fare price. On-line, when you click through to the purchase page, it will show "Half Fare" and you must manually click on "Full fare" if you do not have a Half Fare Card to get your price. Generally, it is assumed that everyone in Switzerland has a Half Fare Card because they are a lot cheaper for residents on an annual basis than the tourist 30-day Half Fare Card.
Thanks very much, Sam!
You do not need the HFC in order to buy half price tickets. So the system will show you prices depending on wether you set it to show half price or full price tickets, not on wether or not you have the HFC.
Same thing when buying tickets. You have to select for each passenger that they have (or will have) the HFC. There is no check at purchase time that a passenger has the HFC.
The app does not check wether you are entitled to half fare travel or not. That is done on the train by the conductor. Be prepared to show both your ticket and the HFC.
So you can even buy half price tickets before you have purchased the HFC.
I just checked using my SBB app, which has my name and SwissPass number. As an example, I put in Zurich airport to Interlaken. At the bottom in red, "From 38.50 CHF". But when I clicked through to ticket purchase, it gave me the price or 77 CHF. I clicked on my name and it came up "No travel card". so that is the correct price. If I had a Half Fare Card, I could edit my information to manually include the Half Fare Card, then I would get the 38.50 price.
I don't believe the app knows you have a tourist 30-day Half Fare Card, even if you bought one with the app. It may know if you have a residents Half Fare Card, which is a monthly subscription tied to a European bank account that renews automatically. So you have to manually enter it if you are buying tickets with the app and have a 30-day Half Fare Card.
Sam, yes it says Half Fare card under my name.
Just test out the price it is giving you. Use my example of Zurich Airport to Interlaken Ost. If you get 38.50 CHF, then it is showing you the Half Fare price. The app may not be able to handle specific dates of validity for the 30-day Half Fare Card, so it may still show the HFC price outside of the validity dates for the card you bought.
I had to manually enter my HFC. Once I did that, the half off price carried through to check out. Before I figured out how to do that, it would say “ prices from”, but when I tried to purchase, it was the full price, not the half price.
