Need help with rail pass

We can't tell you the cheapest option without knowing all the transportation you plan to take during 6 days. However, we have enough info to say that the Half-Fare Card will save money over buying full fare tickets as you go. Buy that for the three oldest travelers and your child aged 14 gets the free Swiss Family Card, traveling free with parents on all transport. A bigger purchase like the 8-day consecutive Swiss Travel Pass will fully cover most transport and give you 25% off Wengen-Jungfraujoch and 50% off Muerren-Schilthorn.

Thanks! To be more specific, we'll just be traveling from Geneva airport to Wengen, in and around BO, and then to Lindau.

Also- Is there any advantage to purchasing in advance?

Julia, it is best to purchase whatever passes that make the most sense to you and your family at the train station when you land. Purchasing the tickets beforehand from the US will involve a middleman price markup. I would read RS's Swiss Train Tips section on this sight to help decide what pass is best for you.

Actually, Swiss passes purchased here don't include any particular "middle man markup." You'd currently pay $398 per adult for an 8-day pass, versus 376 CHF in Switzerland. That's right in between the typical ATM and credit card exchange rates at Oanda.com for this moment. That purchase would qualify for free home delivery or you can choose e-ticketing.

However, if you purchase the Half-Fare Card here, it's not available for e-ticketing and also doesn't come with the free Swiss Family Card, which you would still have to stop in the station to pick up.

Julia, I did understand your two longer train rides but there's a wide variety of transport options that you may or may not use during your stay in Wengen. That's math that you would have to do if you want to feel more confident about the value of the larger pass.

Rail Europe bills itself as "the #1 distributor of train tickets and rail passes in the world". In Laura's example, assuming you purchase the pass with a CC without foreign transaction fee, the "markup" would be about $12 after the CC exchange factor. For some people, $12 may be a small price to pay to have piece of mind and a ticket in hand well before your trip (especially in situations where tickets are limited and prices increase the closer to departure day). In your case, though, tickets on Swiss trains and lifts are a set price and you need not worry about seats being available to you or increasing in price. Also, as Laura mentioned, you would not be able to pick up the Swiss Family Card until you land anyway. Also, what if your plans change? What if your flight is delayed and you arrive a day late? In my humble opinion, I just don't see a reason why you should purchase the travel passes on Rail Europe vs. just getting them when you arrive at the train station desk at the airport.

One last suggestion, if you will have smart phones with data, consider downloading the SBB app. It is handy to have when you are out and about to see how to get to where you want to go in real time. Also, in my last trip to Switzerland in 2015, we had an 8 day Swiss Travel Pass but our last day we were not on the pass (3, 4, 8, and 15 day increments). A few clicks in the app, and we had our train ticket purchased to the airport.