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Swiss half fare card traveling with someone else's child?

Posted by (City of Seattle) on

sorry if this is repeating previously answered questions! I searched and didn't find the exact answer.

Group of 4 people, USA residents. We are 2 adults, our 12 year old daughter, her 12 year old best friend.

It seems to make sense for the adults to purchase one month Swiss Half Fare Travel Cards. And I see that we can get our daughter the "Swiss Family Card" (I think that's the correct name) which appears to be issued when we order our adult Half Fare Cards.

So the Swiss Family Card will be issued ahead of time, digitally, as will our Half Fare Cards? Is this correct?

And what about the other 12 year old girl travelling with us who is not our child but the child of close family friends? Can we also get her a Swiss Family Card as she is travelling with us and we are her defacto guardians while overseas?

There is also a "Children's Co-Traveler Card" for 30CHF, which seems about the same as the Swiss Family Card and intended for our situation, and we would gladly buy it. Can that card be bought ahead of time, before arrival to Switzerland?

The reason I'm concerned about buying ahead of time is that it appears Germany gives some discounts for travelers with the Swiss Half Price Card as well, and I'd like to be able to fully leverage these discounts for the children too. But more importantly, we enter Switzerland by rail via Basel, and we'll both have already paid for tickets to Interlaken, and have a short transfer time that won't allow for buying a Children's Co-Traveler Card on site in Basel. And our departure trip from Interlaken to Paris is highly discounted with both children travelling with discount cards, and we'd like to book that ahead of time.

So a little help and clarification here? What can we order ahead of time in the USA, and can we pick up any potentially "missing" child discount cards in Europe before we get to Switzerland?

Thanks very much, hope this hasn't left you as confused as I am :)

Posted by
16893 posts

The Children's Co-Traveler Card is what you need and it has to be purchased in a Swiss station not online. The free Swiss Family Card for visitors only works with parents and legal guardians, not grandparents, aunties, or “de facto” guardians (and yes, should be issued digitally).

When entering Switzerland, plan to extend your transfer time at Basel. Direct trains from Basel to Interlaken run every half hour. Swiss train tickets on this route and most others don’t require reservations and can be used on a later departure.

You should still be able to book your tickets to Paris in advance, as long as you have the proper discount cards in hand when you board the trains. On both your travel days, I’d expect these cards really only apply to the Interlaken-Basel leg of the trip (or vice versa), rather than any benefit on a Basel-Paris TGV or even a German train.

Posted by
1788 posts

You, Laura, are an absolute gem. So helpful!

Thanks for wading through the Baroque mechanics of our particular situation :)

Hank

Posted by
20158 posts

As far as not have time to purchase the "Children's Co-Traveler Card" at Basel station, you can take any train from Basel to Interlaken as long as it is not a Supersaver ticket. There are trains to Interlaken from Basel SBB every 30 minutes. So the train from Paris to Basel can be highly discounted train specific booking, but an open ticket for the connecting train to Interlaken.

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