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How to purchase Swiss Travel Pass discounted tickets online on in SBB app?

Hello,

I know that trains and buses are typically fully covered by the Swiss Travel Pass and some routes are only discounted. How do I purchase those discounted tickets with the Swiss Travel Pass online?

For example, I’m looking on purchasing one ticket from Wengen to Jungfraujoch and one ticket from Jungfraujoch to Grindelwald that I know are discounted with the Swiss Travel Pass.

But on the SBB app I do not find any option to add this pass, I can add only Half Fare Travelcard GA Travelcard 1st/2nd class and various regional Travelcards

I have to purchase the discounted tickets at the tickets counter?

Thank you!

Posted by
21411 posts

With the Swiss Travel Pass, use the GA Travel Card option, 1st or 2nd class, same as the type of STP you have.

GA stands for General Abonnement, which is what Swiss residents may have. The Swiss Travel Pass is only for visitors from outside of Switzerland, covers exactly the same travel benefits.

If you buy directly online from Jungfraujochbahn, they do have an option for the Swiss Travel Pass. Price is exactly the same for a return ticket, 95 CHF for the "Good Morning" Ticket with the Swiss Travel Pass or GA Travelcard. I believe it is good to return to Grindelwald as the prices are identical for travel from Wengen or Grindelwald.

https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/jungfraujoch-top-of-europe/good-morning-ticket/

Posted by
4 posts

Oh, got it, thank you, so I just check GA Travelcard in the SBB app. And someone checks the ticket, I present the Swiss Travel Pass to see why I've purchased the ticket with the correct price.

One more question if I may. Let's say I have a 2nd class Swiss Travel Pass and for only one particular journey I want to upgrade to first class? How can I achieve this?

Posted by
2627 posts

You can buy a class upgrade for a route. It is one of the options that you will see when you start a ticket purchase in the app.

Posted by
21411 posts

I believe you can do this with the app. The app has your 2nd class pass on it, so then you purchase a 1st class ticket, so you will be charged the price difference between a 1st and 2nd class ticket for your journey, or journey section.

Posted by
191 posts

You don’t actually purchase a first class ticket, just the upgrade.

Here are the steps:

For example Luzern to Interlaken Ost

  1. Enter your departure and destination locations, choose day and time of your journey
  2. On the bottom of the following screen you will see a red bar and "Tickets from CHF and an amount" Click on this
  3. On the next screen you have choices for what kind of ticket you want to purchase. Scroll down to see "point-to-point class upgrade"
  4. This is the ticket you will purchase

In my above example of Luzern to Interlaken Ost the cost is 12.00 CHF with a Half Fare Card.

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you very much for all the infos.

Regarding the Swiss Travel Pass discounted tickets online on in SBB app this is very useful with the GA Travelcard.

Online on official sites of forums you only find infos like "You can purchase the discounted tickets online or directly from the ticket counter. Please present your pass to make sure you’ll get the discount.", but nothing on how to “present” the pass when purchasing tickets online or in SBB app.

Posted by
8 posts

Hi I’m trying to do the same — book tickets on SBB mobile app and I already purchased 4 day Swiss Travel Pass for our family of 4.

Based on the suggestion on this thread — on my “Tickets and Travel card’ tab, I ‘manually entered travel card’ as GA Travel card - 2nd class. And when I try to book train tickets , it just shows this GA Travel card on my ticket and waives the price. But, it doesn’t give me an option to do the same for my other 3 family members

Any suggestion please ?

Should I just try to go to the train station directly instead of booking in advance on the App ?

I wish SBB app was more helpful

Posted by
273 posts

In the Profile section of the SBB app, you can add co-passenger(s).

We spent three weeks in Switzerland in October and I had the app and was logged into my account. I added my husband as a co-passenger, so each time I purchased tickets I could buy for him too. You can also state that the co-passenger has the Half Fare which is what I did.

My husband then also had the app, logged in with my log in details and then both of us could see both tickets, handy if one of us was elsewhere when the ticket inspectors came.

It really does work very well once you get there, it is only complicated when trying to work it out before you go.

Posted by
191 posts

And when I try to book train tickets , it just shows this GA Travel card on my ticket and waives the price.

When the app waives the price, then you have chosen a route that is fully covered by your STP. There is no need to ‘book tickets’, just get on the train that you want to take.

The original poster of this thread is taking a route that is not fully covered by the STP, when you are choosing to do one of those routes follow the advice from DebH above, creating an account for each passenger, being sure you state that they have a GA travel card, and then purchase a ticket for each person that way.

It seems cumbersome, but this method prevents you from accidentally purchasing tickets for any in your party who are not traveling on that specific journey. I have several people who visit me regularly and I have them in my app, but I certainly do not want to purchase tickets in their name each time I go on a journey throughout the year!

Posted by
2627 posts

For example, I’m looking on purchasing one ticket from Wengen to
Jungfraujoch and one ticket from Jungfraujoch to Grindelwald that I
know are discounted with the Swiss Travel Pass.

You should buy this a the station (and it does not have to be Wengen). The STS only gives 25% reduction, so you cannot use the tricks suggested in this thread. (As the GA for example gives 50%). You cannot buy tickets with 25% reduction via the SBB App.

In General it is a very bad idea to buy tickets for mountain excursions in advance. Only buy them if you are sure of the weather. In most cases just buying them on the spot is the best option.

In general you should get the idea that you need to book anything in advance out of your head (*). Swiss public transit is mass transit. Most people buy tickets minutes before departure. And tickets for all mountain excursions are available at their respective stations. And the staff knows what reduction to apply when you show the STS.

(*) The notable exception here being the Glacier Express...

Posted by
21411 posts

The reply above has been reported to the webmaster for removal.

Posted by
191 posts

Good point @WegenK, the GA and STP do not offer the same reduction for the Jungfraujoch, I hadn't realised that. ;-)