Various Swiss Pass

Your two kids travel with you for absolutely free no matter what Pass or Point to Point tickets you purchase as long as you request a free Swiss Family Card. So what is it that confuses you? Do you want the convenience of just hopping on trains wherever and whenever you want in Switzerland? Do you want to stop and buy each set of tickets at a discounted price each step of the way? How many days will you be there?

What confuses me is if we should consider flexi pass versus half-fare card. We would effectively be there for 3 days (though 4 nights as arrive in Interlaken). Also - can we use the pass to book from Interlaken to Basel on the day out as we travel out of Basel by TGV to Paris? If we buy the half-fare card; do we still spend quite a lot of time buying tickets waiting in line or the system works pretty smoothly and it is not an issue? I'm sorry - this is our first time in Europe -hence not familiar with the rail system in Swiss/Europe.

Thanks
RC

With a Half Fare Card (HFC) you must buy tickets for each of your trips. You show your HFC at the ticket counter and that's how you get the 50% discount. Swiss Passes add much more "convenience" in that you don't have to purchase tickets for each trip. Just jump on and go. A Swiss Saver Pass is just a variation of a Swiss Pass with more than 1 more person traveling on the same paper ticket. A Swiss Flexi Pass is another variation with the only difference being it's NOT a consecutive day pass. Likewise a Swiss Saver Flexi Pass is just more than 1 person traveling on the same paper ticket.

A Swiss Flexi Pass is not consecutive free travel days...but on the days in between your big travel days you may use it as a HFC and get 50% of of any tickets you purchase at the ticket counter.

Of course NO Swiss Pass variation will give you free travel on the high mountain private rail lines such as the Jungfrau. But even if it's not free it's still heavily discounted if you have some version of the Swiss Pass or the HFC.

Swiss Pass variations and HFCs will get you all the way to the Swiss border but not past.

So what else do you not understand about Swiss Passes?

We are 4 adults traveling and from what you post it sounds like for a 3 day 4 night stay in Lucerne, a Swiss Saver Pass makes the most sense. Is that correct?

We will also be traveling from Lucerne to Salzburg. Would the Swiss Saver Pass get us from Lucerne to the border of Austria?

Thanks.

Ask for the Family card and then your kids will travel with you for free. It comes for free with some Swiss Passes or $33 at any train station according to Rick's page:
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/switzerland-rail-passes#transfer-ticket-card