Nightjet train questions

Look at the maninseat61 website as a starting point.

Being a lot more tolerant of long train rides than of dealing with airports, I'd probably opt for the (daytime) train myself, but there are many non-stop flights every day between Zurich and Amsterdam shown on skyscanner.com. Fares for the random September date I checked are currently lowest on KLM and KLM Cityhopper, but Swiss also offers that route, albeit at a considerably higher price. This is quite early to buy a ticket for an intra-European flight; I don't know what would happen to the fares if you waited several months, or longer, to purchase.

According to The Man in Seat 61 there are no en suite cabins currently on either the Zurich or Basel sections of the train- this train uses 50 year old cars- https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/nightjet.htm
(scroll down to where it says AB33 sleeping car).

There is only one sleeper car and one couchette car on each section of the train, plus 8 seating cars according to Vagonweb.

We cant give any fare guidance as OeBB now uses a dynamic fares model, like airlines Within the next 6 weeks I can see everything from 200 to almost 500 euro, for a cabin for 2 people.

If you book a sleeping car cabin (as opposed to a couchette berth) on nightjet you always book the entire cabin.

All cars have a sink, even much older cars than these, used in other countries by other operators.

There is always a chance that by next June they may have introduced newer train cars to this journey, but that is the case currently. As they bring in new train fleets some of the other cars may be moved around and the AB33's retired, in which case en suites may become available. But OeBB have no published schedule for when or if that might happen.

A Eurail pass does not save $$, because the pass only covers the transportation, not the cost of any sleeping accommodations, which is quite a bit more than the ticket price for a private cabin.

Train vloggers love Nightjet, there are tons of videos. Simply Railway, Steve Marsh, Superalbs Travel, Nonstop Eurotrip should all have posts.

The current Zurich - Basel - Amsterdam Nightjet (it is one train, not two sections) is not a very good one, as it has rather old rollin stock. It is supposed to get new trains, but nobody knows yet when.

My choice would be a day time train. Its a long day, but so is travelling by air. Getting from Luzern to Amsterdam is going to eat up a day no matter how you approach the issue. And the train is rather civilised. I do long trips like that quite regularly.

Different option. Break up the 8 hour trip.

Zurich to Paris (TGV) 4:43. Spend the rest of the day and night in Paris.

Paris Nord to Amsterdam 3:30 the following day.

Thank you all for the info/suggestions! Will probably be doing the full day train but will consider a Paris pvernight stop. Had not even realized that would be an efficient option!