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Source for buying Swiss Rail pass

Posted by (San Francisco, CA) on

My husband and I and two 26 year olds will be using the Swiss Rail pass for four non-consecutive days of travel in November. I have not ascertained whether it is better to purchase the 4 day passes from the Rail Europe website or perhaps another site? We will be joining up in Zurich from the US, Scotland and Denmark to begin the travel. It will be our first time to use a pass, and we eagerly anticipate the beauty of the alps. The only part we will have to get separate tickets for (it seems) will be the Luzern-Zurich airport train before leaving which would be day 5. Also if you have thoughts about reserving a particular car/seat for any of these segments we will greatly appreciate that advice. The segments we plan to use the pass for are:

Zurich-Interlaken (Unterseen) 23 Nov.

Interlaken-Lukerbad 25 Nov.

Lukerbad-Locarno 27 Nov.

Locarno-Luzern 29 Nov.

Luzern-Zurich 30 Nov.

Any recommendations and suggestions are welcome!

Posted by
20085 posts

Do you mean Leukerbad?
Just buy them when you arrive at Zurich airport. Since they come in 4 days in a month variety, just buy tickets for Luzern to Zurich airport as that is the cheapest ticket at 30 CHF per person.

Posted by
8889 posts

Buy directly from SBB (Swiss Federal railways).

  • You can buy your pass at any airport or border station, including Zürich airport.
  • You cannot buy a non-consecutive pass on the SBB website. It has to be a paper ticket, not an e-ticket.

A "Swiss Travel Pass Flex 4 days in 1 month" costs CHF 323. The price is fixed, it doesn't go up and down.
Details here: https://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/travel-in-switzerland/international-guests/swiss-travel-pass.html

Luzern to Zürich Flughafen (airport) costs CHF 30 per person, 2nd class.
You can look up other prices on the SBB website.

Posted by
8889 posts

Also if you have thoughts about reserving a particular car/seat for any of these segments we will greatly appreciate that advice.

You do not need to reserve seats on Swiss trains. In most cases it is not even possible, that is not the Swiss way.

Posted by
1546 posts

Definitely wait til you arrive to purchase. That's what we did and the agent was so helpful. He gave us lots of additional info and answered some questions.

Posted by
4 posts

Yes, I did mean Leukerbad.
Thank you for your replies. It seems like it would be better to wait until arrival and purchase the 4 day flex passes upon arrival at Zurich airport.

I appreciate your help.

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