We just returned from an absolutely amazing trip to Switzerland. I Will probably post a trip report at some point, but just wanted to chime in as I know there are so many questions about the rail passes. I had a lot of the same questions and toiled over what to do but after some of the advice I received here, I just decided to roll with the half fare card and very happy we did. It greatly simplified things not having to worry about which trains were covered by this pass or that. I feel like if I had gotten one of the passes I would’ve felt obligated to do activities covered by that pass. Getting just the half fair Card allowed us to do what we wanted and still get a very reasonable discount. Once you purchase the card, Literally all you need is the SBB app and it is fantastic. Never had an issue with a train being full (including the cogwheel train coming down Pilatus)
For those of you who are new to this, i’ll explain what I did. I purchased the pass for myself and my wife on the SBB website. (I found it easier to do it here than on the app.) I was also sure to enroll both of our children under age 16 with the Swiss family card which allowed them completely free travel on every lift, train, and bus throughout the entire country. It was pretty amazing. within the SBB app, you can default for it to display the half fare price and it is rather easy to load your travel companions (if you want to simplify things by making one person in charge of tickets, otherwise if they have their own device and are capable, of course they can just do it themselves).
once we were completed with a hike or other activity, I would load the app and select “current location” and the destination we wanted to go to, and it would figure out the rest! Easy to purchase with a few clicks. The rail conductors were very efficient at checking the passes and you simply have to scan all of the QR codes. If you’re going through a cog wheel train , gondola, or lift you typically have to scan the QR codes at a turnstile before boarding since there is no conductor checking tickets on these modalities. This was the only part that was tricky as I was scanning four different QR codes and trying to manage children and luggage, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly.