when and where to buy Swiss Travel Pass

What do you perceive the advantage of 1st over 2nd to be?

Where are you arriving in Switzerland from? We arrived in Switzerland after dropping off a car rental at Basel/Mulhouse airport, and bought a pass at there. The staff were very helpful, and printed itineraries for the journeys we knew we were doing for certain. I'd try to buy at a larger station, where you might be able to get specific help. The 2nd class was sufficient for our needs.

I purchased a half fare card (Swiss Pass was overkill for what I had planned) online and that along with the SBB app were really convenient!

I used first class at certain times: on arrival (I detest flying and needed the serenity) and to Zurich airport from Lucerne (it was morning, again just wanted the peace). Every other trip I did second and only regretted it once--a very crowded second floor train with a suitcase.

If you by chance need more than 8 days, there is going to be a promotion starting on April 15th and you can get 10 days for the price of 8. The second promotion is buy a 4 day pass and get an additional day free. Travel is good from April 15th thru November 13th.

Travel bug, thx for sharing!
I have always found second class to be very comfortable.
Safe travels!

I always purchase mine on-line at home so I can print out copies and I also receive a link to add the pass to the wallet on my iphone and iwatch.

I’m not familiar with the promotion mentioned by travelbug. Those usually are available from specific websites. So, not sure who will be offering that promotion. That’s who you’d need to buy from to get the deal.

I did 2nd class once and 1st class once. I much prefer 1st class. I pretty much had those train cars to myself. 2nd class is good too, but can get crowded. We got off a train once because we could not find seats.

Thanks for the responses. We were thinking first class might be less crowded with more room to have luggage with us. We will be traveling from Geneva to Interlaken and then on to Lauterbrunnen with a couple of other day train trips to follow.

Thanks, TravelBug. Where might I find that promotion?

Check the "Switzerland Travel Planning Group" on Facebook. The group is by Holidays to Switzerland.

Thanks, Carrie, for your comments. What websites did you use to purchase passes in advance?

I got mine from this website:

https://www.swissrailways.com/

Unless there’s a promotion, there’s no reason to purchase too far ahead of time. Without a sale price, I’d probably wait until about a week before the trip to purchase. That will give you time in case you run into any trouble with printing or adding the pass to your phone.

If you are worried about finding seats in 2d class ( a valid concern on some routes in high season), you can make seat reservations for the IC trains online in advance, for 5CHF each. That is a lot cheaper than the extra 228 CHF you would pay for the First Class 8-day pass.

https://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-and-tickets/tickets-for-switzerland/seat-reservations.html

You can also buy a class upgrade, and you can do that even on board. If you see 2nd class is to full you go to 1st class, and when the conductor comes ask for a class upgrade. The price (with a pass) is half the difference between a full fare 1st and 2nd class ticket.
You can also buy class upgrades using the SBB app.

But I almost always travel first class nowadays. I like the quiet and the extra space, and can fortunately afford it.