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Swiss Travel Pass MAJOR Issue

Posted by on

I'm hoping this community can help me. I just purchased a Swiss Travel Pass from Rick Steve's Eurail page. Currently the only option to receive the document is download/print at home. When I received my document it came with the following instructions:

Activate your pass:
1. Add your pass to the app
2. Connect your pass to a trip
3. Activate your pass

So, like the astute human being I am, I began following these guidelines. HOWEVER, the downloadable document provide there is not the required 10-Digit Customer Number needed in order to complete the above three steps. The reason this is important to access is that I need to make seat reservations for the scenic railways who are quickly filling up.

I reached out to Rail Europe by Rick Steves, where I purchased the ticket and was told to just reserve my seats when I arrive in Swtizerland. So that's the level of Customer Service being provided. That is NOT an acceptable response considering one of the trains I plan to travel on only has 20 seats left.

Is anyone else having the same issue? I even called the Swiss Travel Pass people in Switzerland based on their own forum for confused travelers and they did not help.

Any guidance from anyone would be greatly appreciated!

Posted by
17422 posts

Generally you do not need to enter your pass number to make seat reservations; you just have to have your pass in hand when you ride the train.

Are you sure you need to enter a pass number? Are you reserving on the official website for the particular scenic train? That is the way to do it.

Posted by
28065 posts

I recall a few other reports on the forum about the Customer Number issue but don't remember whether there was a resolution. Try the Search function here. If that doesn't work, try Google. You aren't the first person to run into this.

Posted by
8164 posts

Which scenic train? Similar to what Lola said I reserved a seat on the Golden Pass Train website before even purchasing the Swiss Travel Pass.

Posted by
3125 posts

Are you trying to connect the pass to the SBB app? Because that you cannot do.

I haven’t purchased my passes from Eurail. Were you emailed a QR code? And a link to print the pass? You just need to show the QR code to the conductor when asked. The QR code will either be in your phone’s wallet or the printed copy. Unless there is something you need to do in an Eurail app to display the pass.

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you all for your responses, I was able to figure out that indeed on SBB's app there was no way to reserve a seat for scenic railways.

A tip for all purchases a Swiss Travel Pass is do not follow the three step-activate instructions that are posted in the Rail Europe app!

Posted by
17422 posts

Which scenic trains are you planning to take? We can tell you the official website for each one so you can make your reservations there.

Posted by
21142 posts

A tip for all purchases a Swiss Travel Pass is do not follow the three step-activate instructions that are posted in the Rail Europe app!

Why anybody deals with Rail Europe, I have no idea. But all the Rickniks read his books and assume Rail Europe is the end al and be all for European train travel. Every time you buy something from Rail Europe on the Rick Steves site, the cash register rings at 130 4th Ave N, Edmonds, WA. And that is about as for as it goes.

You could have bought the pass from SBB when you get off the plane in Switzerland. Then you'd get a complete explanation of how to use the pass by a human.

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