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Single route first class upgrades on STP for free child on Swiss Family Card

Posted by (California) on

Hello,

If I have purchased second class Swiss Travel Passes and we have a child (10) traveling free on the Family Card, can we upgrade the child also when buying first class upgrades through the app? What is the process for the child? Do I pay a certain percentage for the child ticket for the upgrade? Is it easily done through the app on a mobile phone or do I have to do it at the station?

Lastly, are first class upgrades easily obtained for rush hour if you book well in advance? I have a 11am flight out of Zurich and `need to travel from Bern to catch our flight. I would be willing to reserve this upgrade right now (4 months out).

Danke

Posted by
20133 posts

Traveling with the free Family Card, your child is still free, whether you are traveling in 1st or 2nd class. So, no, you just buy the uprade for yourself. As to when you upgrade, that has no bearing on the matter. If you buy a ticket 4 months in advance, you have exactly the same rights to a seat as the person that bought his ticket on his app 2 minutes before the train departs.

If your intended train is an IC train, and the direct trains from Bern to Zurich airport are, you can buy seat reservations for 5 CHF each. In this case, you would have to buy a seat reservation for your child as well. Normally not sold until 60 days before the travel date.
https://www.sbb.ch/en/tickets-offers/tickets/point-to-point-tickets-switzerland/seat-reservations.html

Posted by
16312 posts

My experience is the Family Card entitles the child to travel for free in whatever class their parent or parents travels in. No upgrade needed for the child, only the parents. We did this last September with our adult kids and grandchildren—-I bought Saver Day Passes in First for our boat/train trip from Luzern to Bellinzona for all the adults. The kids did not need any upgrade.

Posted by
1684 posts

Note that you can even get a class upgrade on board the train. So if you notice that 2nd class is to full for your taste, and go to 1st you can buy the upgrade there on the spot. Either from the conductor, or using the SBB app.

This is the one exception to the rule that you must always have a ticket before you board...

Posted by
1684 posts

My experience is the Family Card entitles the child to travel for free
in whatever class their parent or parents travels in.

Which is why you see so many grandparents with their grandchildren in 1st class on weekends :-)

There is a domestic equivalent to the family card called the junior/co-travellers card. We used to have one for each of our godchildren (until they both turned 16) so we could take them out on excursions. And we would normally go 1st class.

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