trains, tickets

Do you plan to go to Luzern directly from Frankfurt airport?
Are you returning to Frankfurt airport afterward or some other country, or are you returning from Switzerland?

Answers to these questions will give a clearer determination of your best strategy. You can often get very good Sparpreis tickets from Germany which will be better than any discount for the trains inside of Switzerland. But if you are getting a full fare German ticket from Frankfurt to Luzern, then a Swiss Pass or Half Fare Card will provide benefits as soon as you cross the border. Same applies when you are leaving Switzerland to another country by rail.

We are going directly to Luzern from Frankfurt .

Going home, we are flying out of Frankfurt as well.

Here is our itinerary so far

Oct 13th fly from Atlanta, GA to Frankfurt. We arrive early morning on Oct 14th in Frankfurt. We plan to take a train to Luzern directly from the Frankfurt airport
Oct 14th-15th we ill be in Luzern then in the afternoon on Oct 15th take the train to Lauterbrunnen where we have hotel reservations
for 2 nights at the Hotel Silberhorn.
Oct 17th maybe spend a day in Bern, but my husband needs to be back in Germany ( small town just over the border close to Basel) for a dinner meeting. The rest of the days ( 2 days) we will just be in that little town for his business meetings, and then go back up to Frankfurt to fly out back to the USA

Thanks for any tips on how to save money on travel passes.

Linda Lee

My husband and I went to Murren for 5 nights last month and I spent a LOT of time beforehand pricing out the train alternatives -- point-to-point tickets, tickets with Half Fare Card, Transfer Pass, Swiss Pass, 2-country Eurailpass. You need to run the numbers for the trains YOU plan to take, including any (expensive) lifts. For us, point-to-point with HalfFare (Lausanne to Murren RT, plus Schilthorn trip) was slightly better, but if we had not planned the Schilthorn then plain point-to-point would have been less expensive.

You only have about 154 CHF worth of Swiss train tickets per person, so neither a Swiss Pass or a Half Fare Card would pay off, unless you did either the Schilthorn or Jungfrau trips. Even with a Swiss Pass, these trips would not be fully covered. You said the weather would a big factor whether or not you would even go to Lauterbrunnen, so I would not count on it too much.

The Flexpreis ticket from Frankfurt airport is 113.20 EUR per person. It would be risky too get a Sparpreis ticket when you land. The only real savings opportunity is the 9:53 connection which is available for about 70 EUR per person, and if you miss your train, the ticket becomes worthless and you would have to buy a new Flexpreis ticket. Not a big enough discount to make me want to take that bet.

The only savings would be on your return. Assuming you head to Frankfurt the night before your flight home, I see Sparpreis tickets from Loerrach to Frankfurt Hbf for 30 EUR per person. I'm using Loerrach as it is a town in Germany just north of Basel. You did not say the name of the small town where hubby's business is to take place.

Thank-you Sam for calculating for me. If we did do one of the big mountain trips, would it be worth it to get the Swiss pass or the Half fare pass? I know those trips are expensive? With the swiss pass, is it 50 % off as well? I think the swiss pass you also get free boat ride on Lake Luzern, and also another cogwheel train trip for free? ( Schnige Platte)

Linda

Since a roundtrip from Lauterbrunnen to the Schilthorn is 112 CHF, that would put you over the top for a Half Fare Card. The Swiss Pass probably will not save much. Travel is free to any Swiss village with a year round population, but it gives only a 50% discount for lifts above that. For instance, the cost for the roundtrip from Lauterbrunnen to Schilthorn if 56 CHF with the Half Fare Card, but with the Swiss Pass, it still costs 40 CHF. For the Jungfraujoch, the Half Fare Card gives a 50% discount for the whole trip from Lauterbrunnen, while the Swiss Pass is free to Wengen, but then only a 25% discount up to the Jungfraujoch and back.
Schynige Platte is free with the Swiss Pass and 50 % with the Half Fare Card. Same with all the lake boats.
Decisions, decision.

If you go to the Jungfrau then the savings from that trip alone practically pays for the cost of the Swiss Half Fare card...

So, let me make sure I understand what I need to do. Do I need to buy a ticket via the trainsystem in Germany from Frankfurt to Luzern? The ticket via the German trains will go all the way through to Luzern? Or should I buy I ticket from Frankfurt to Basel. Then transfer to the swiss railway system- and if we get the half fare pass then the second leg will be half price?

What site do I go to to compare options?

TIA

Linda

Linda, the "train systems" you talk about are integrated. You can buy one ticket from Frankfurt-am-Main Flughafen (not to be confused with Frankfurt-an-der-Oder) to Luzern. Depending which train you take, this may or may not involve changing trains in Basel, Karlsruhe and/or somewhere else. The ticket the website will sell you will be valid on whichever trains it says on the ticket.

Just go to the DB (German Railways) site and look up times and prices: https://www.bahn.de/p_en/view/index.shtml
Buy a "print-at-home" ticket, print it out, get on the train, and show it to the ticket inspector when (s)he comes round.
If you decide to buy a Swiss half fare ticket, you can buy it on the Swiss Railways site ( www.sbb.ch ), and make sure you tick the boy to get the lower fare when you buy the Frankfurt Flughafen to Luzern ticket.
For Luzern to Lauterbrunnen, and you other trips inside Switzerland, you buy at the station. German Railways (DB) gives discounts for advance purchase, Swiss Railways (SBB) mostly does not.

With the caveat that, if you are flying in on the same day, be sure to allow enough time in case your flight is late, as DB reduced price tickets are only valid on the specified train.

And, whatever your "small town just over the border close to Basel" is (Lörrach?), that needs to be factored in.

If you buy a Flexpreis ticket on-line, you can input that you have a Swiss Half Fare Card. You must have the card in hand before you board the train, but you can buy the ticket before you have the card.

Trains from FRA will transfer at Basel for the trains that go at 53 past the odd hours (9:53 say). The trains at 53 past the even hours (10:53 say) have an additional transfer at Mannheim on the way to Basel.
Buy tickets at www.bahn.com.

You will have to buy your Swiss Half Fare Cards now as they will take 2-3 business days to send them to you via UPS, Looks you buy them from Raileurope which which you can find on the Ricksteves.com site.
https://ricksteves.raileurope.com/activities/swiss-half-fare-card/index.html?bookEng=Activities

You could also buy them at the station in Basel, but that would delay you the time it takes to complete the purchase before you can get the next train to Luzern. Maybe an hour at most. In that case, you would just buy a ticket to Basel from FRA, stop and buy the Half Fare Cards, then tickets to Luzern. There are direct train to Luzern at 4 and 17 past the hour, and one requiring a connection at 31 past the hour.

Also, you should buy the tickets for your return to Frankfurt now at www.bahn.com, in order to get the best price and if you know when you want to go.

Hi Linda,

I wouldn't buy the Frankfurt-Luzern ticket ahead, as there is no way of knowing if your flight will be on time or how long it will take you get through customs. Most of the trains going from Frankfurt to Luzern involve a change at the border, in Basel. There are direct trains from Frankfurt airport to Basel every 2 hours, more involving a change in Mainz, Mannheim or downtown Frankfurt. See the German Rail website for schedules and prices: www.bahn.de/p_en/view/index.shtml

You can save some money on your return ticket by booking ahead on the Deutsch Bahn website above (Basel to the town in Germany you will be heading to next and from that town to Frankfurt airport). If you get a Swiss Half-fare card, you can either buy this at the station in Basel, along with your half-price ticket from Basel to Luzern, or buy it ahead online through Rail Europe - www.raleurope.com. Once you are in Switzerland, you just show this pass at the train or lift stations to buy your half-price tickets.

Linda,
There are two stations in Basel, "Basel Badischer Bahnhof" and "Basel SBB". Intercity trains from Germany (Frankfurt direction) stop at both, and in some cases continue on to Swiss destinatioins as Swiss trains. If you need to change at Basel onto a Swiss train, or buy a Swiss ticket, that is at Basel SBB, which is the second stop. The border (and property line between the two railway companies) is between the two stations.
When you look up times on either the German or Swiss Railways sites, it will clearly say "Basel SBB".