Swiss Half Fare Card Question

Did you purchase as a guest?

https://www.sbb.ch/en/offers/buy-swiss-half-fare-card

The Swiss Pass is for Swiss residents.

Did you receive an email with QR codes?

I’m pretty sure I did not purchase as a guest. I currently have a profile on SBB website and my family of 4 Swiss Half Fare Cards and Swiss Family Card (for kids) are all on my SBB app.

I did receive an email with QR codes. My profile also has all my USA information. I also remember having to pick my 30 days of validity. Cost was CHF 300 total.

FWIW, the physical card they sent me does say SwissPass on the top right-hand side.

The first line of the mail they sent me with the card says, “We’re delighted to be able to send you your personal Swiss Pass.”

Did I make an error and if so, do I need to call SBB to fix this?

The SwissPass card is for residents and long term visitors. Just ignore the card and use your QR codes. You can have your QR codes on each of your phones and purchase half fare tickets without a half fare card loaded into your app. Just select half fare, it’s on the honor system at purchase. The only time you show proof is on the train.

You should be Ok. And there’s no need to link the half fare cards to the account.

When purchasing tickets, you just need to indicate that you have a half fare card. In fact, you don’t even need to have the half fare card when you buy the tickets. Just when traveling.

So, when you are traveling, you will show the QR codes for the half fare cards and then you’ll have QR codes for the tickets too.

I would just ignore the swiss pass account and don’t even worry about it.

wanderweg and carrie - Thank you both so much. I’m not 100% sure what I did (right or wrong). I wish I could upload pictures, but my SBB app has all the info.

On the “Tickets and Travelcards” section of the SBB app, there is a link/box to click on that says, “Swiss Half Fare Card, Swiss Family Card.” When I click on this, it brings up 4 QR codes that I can scroll through. Me and wife’s says, Swiss Half Fare Card. Kid’s says, Swiss Family card. The cards have ticket-ID numbers, reference numbers, and order numbers.

Above this section is my photo with another QR code. I can flip to the back, and it has, “customer number, SwissPass Mobile number, and SwissPass Card Number.”

If anyone else has anything to add, I’m truly grateful, FWIW, here is what Claude said when I copied and pasted my questions and others’ responses…

*Both Carrie and wanderweg are giving you accurate, practical advice — you're fine.

What likely happened: You created an SBB account, which automatically generates a SwissPass identity (the photo ID layer) alongside your Half Fare Card purchase. That's normal and not an error on your part. The physical SwissPass card with your photo got mailed because the system tied your purchase to a named profile rather than a guest checkout. Your wife's Half Fare Card exists as a valid product (QR code, ticket ID, reference number) attached to your account — it just isn't linked to a separate SwissPass photo-ID for her, which is why no physical card showed up for her.

Does that matter? No, and here's why the forum advice holds up:
- The Half Fare Card discount and the physical SwissPass photo card are two different things. The discount lives in the QR code/ticket data, not the plastic.
- On Swiss trains, conductors scan QR codes (yours, on your phones) — they're not checking that the card visually matches a specific named photo ID for every product, especially for the Half Fare discount itself.
- You already have everything that matters: valid ticket-ID, reference number, order number, and a scannable QR code for her Half Fare Card on your app.

One small thing worth double-checking, that the thread hasn't addressed yet: when you actually buy point-to-point tickets or passes (like your Cinque Terre/Lugano leg or the Gotthard Panorama Express), make sure each ticket is correctly associated with the right traveler (her ticket linked to her Half Fare discount, yours to yours) — not just that the discount was applied. That match-up matters more than whether she has a physical SwissPass card. If the QR codes are scrollable per-person in your app as you described, you're set.
You don't need to call SBB. Nothing to fix.*

As usually Claude gets it mostly right.

The "Swiss Pass" is a card that is issued to residents when they purchase a travel product that is intended for residents. The Half Fare Travel Card, the Generalabonnement or a local commuter pas. It is good for 10 years and you just load whatever subscriptions.passes etc you have on it. You can eg in windter even load a ski pass on it.

It is not intended for tourists. So what probably happened is that during your registration on SBB you took a wrong turn and ended up applying for the "Swiss Pass" card.

Note Swiss Pass has nothing to do with Swiss Travel Pass. Swiss are sometimes quite literal, and on letter difference can mean a huge difference. Here there is a whole word added, so it should be plainly obvious that this are two completely unrelated things. (Well, in fact, I think that whoever came up with the idea to call the little red customer card "Swiss Pass" was smoking something...)

There was no need for you to do that.

The SBB site is confusing for tourists at times. Which is why I point people at www.swissrailways.com nowadays for buying passes.

One thing Claude also gets wrong: You do not need to "link" your HFC to a ticket. You just indicate when buying tickets that the person you buy it for has the half fare card. You only need to have the name and date of birth correct. So enter your wife as co passenger in the app. For the children you do not need tickets.

It was a bonus to sign up with an account rather than as a guest, as you have already seen - now you have your HFCs and Family cards in your app.

It is relatively new that you can even do that with the one month HFC and it will make things more streamlined for you, so you did well in going that route!

My physical SwissPass card serves as a backup for me - the conductor can scan it to see that I have a HFC. If you are the type that likes to have a physical backup then bring it along. You can always ask the first time that it is scanned just what all is on there - HFC, family card?

Thank you wengenk and swissnomad.

Bottom line… I don’t need to call SBB or try to undo anything?

One very useful thing about having the Swiss Pass card, is if you go to Zermatt. The summer lift pass in Zermatt does give a discount with the Half Fare Card, but only if you have a Swiss Pass card that the lift pass can be loaded on. Even if you have a 30-day HFC, if you don't have a Swiss Pass card, you pay full price.

Bottom line… I don’t need to call SBB or try to undo anything?

Correct! You are good to go!