I will be in Switzerland for eight days in June. I will travel with my wife and two teenage daughters (16 & 17) For the Swiss Half Fare Pass, would I need to buy tickets for four adults? I couldn't add children to the price at check out and since my girls are older than 16, I am not sure if that means we would need to purchase four adult Half Fare passes. Any insights?
Thank you
Steve
Yes, you would each need your own Half Fare Cards. Otherwise, everyone else on the train would tell the conductor "I'm with him."
That makes sense. Thank you for your response.
Yes, 16-year-old is an adult, all 4 need either adult tickets, or their own Half Fare Cards + Half Fare tickets (same as child fare <16).
Half fare Cards are per person, so you need 4, one with each person's name on it.
"four adult Half Fare passes" - That is the only type, half a child's fare is ¼ fare - that doesn't exist.
On ticket machines there are two options: "Adult" or "Half Fare Card / child".
You don't need to show the Half Fare Card when you buy tickets. On the train, you need to show both your ticket and the Half Frae Card.
Thank you so much. Can I get the Half Fare tickets there in Switzerland or should I purchase them before our trip?
If you have a set schedule of times dates you want to take the train I would wait until 30 days before to buy tickets. SBB offers super saver tickets only 30 days before departure on certain routes. With a Half Fare card you would get an additional 50% off of those. That is the only advantage of buying tickets in advance.
Otherwise the online ticket system SBB automatically defaults to show the fares at Half Price as almost everyone has an Half Fare card there.
You can buy the Half Fare Cards on the SBB website here: https://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/travel-in-switzerland/international-guests/swiss-halffare-card.html
You enter your name, and the date you want it to start on.
Or you can buy them at any airport or border rail station. Either way it is the same price, CHF 120 per person.
Buying at a border rail station is not a convenient option if you are on a train and do not otherwise want to stop off at the border station.
The pass does not have to be valid when you buy the tickets, just when you travel with the tickets.
And, as Jazz says, the Half Fare Card also gives you a further reduction on "Supersaver" advance purchase reduced fare tickets.
Thank you all very much. I will check again 30 days before we depart and hope for additional discounts.
Steve
Is this worth it? The half price. We will only be there a week. Training from Zurich to Wengen with an overnight in Eggiwil and then back again a week later. We do plan to use the trains in Jungfreu region/trams/buses and wonder if the 1/2 price works for all of those or just trains and buses. Suggestion? Get a 1/2 price? No?
Go to www.sbb.ch/en and price out every trip you plan on doing, keeping in mind the first price you see will be the price with a Half Fare Card, so double it. If the total cost per person exceeds 240 CHF of full fare tickets, then the Half Fare Card will save you money.
For instance, The cost of a ticket from Zurich airport to Eggiwil, Dorf shows "1× Point-to-point Ticket, Half-Fare travelcard, from CHF 34.90". That means a full fare ticket is 69.80 CHF.
The Half Fare Card actually gives a true 50% discount to the Jungfraujoch. So if you’re planning to visit the Jungfraujoch then that savings alone practically pays for the cost of the HFC.
We were unable to purchase the Swiss Passes on line recently, and tried different computers, browsers , credit cards [credit card companies were alerted], as we were being given "Error Notices." OP's here reported the same problem; a few folks with American Express reportedly were successful. We bought the passes quickly right after we landed in Zurich, at the train station.
Safe travels !
Super! Will buy the 1/2 pass a month out. Last time we had a car so this time it’s all rail! Did that last summer in France and Netherlands.
