Why buying Berner Oberland passes AND the half fare card?

The Berner Oberland Pass is quite comprehensive and is explained at www.BerneseOberlandPass.ch A four-day Pass is CHF 280 for standard (2nd) class on trains . With a half-fare card—which costs CHF 126 or US $143–the price is CHF 196. But that doesn’t pencil out to any savings for 4 days, does it? ( In fact, it’s more expensive). So, I agree with you that most travelers would NOT want to buy a half-fare card with the Pass for a short trip of 4-5 days. If, In addition to spending time in the Berner Oberland, they plan on traveling for several days in areas of Switzerland not covered by the Pass then it may be worth adding the Half-Fare Card. The pass covers a lot of Switzerland, but not transport to cities such as Geneva, Basel and Zurich near the perimeters of 🇨🇭 Switzerland. Train fares from Geneva, Zurich and Basel to Bern only cost from $25-$40 anyway, so it saves money to simply buy those train tickets separately.
I would buy the Berner Oberland 4-day pass for your plans if that is the extent of your itinerary in Switzerland. It just does not include your train ticket to get from the border cities to Bern or Lucerne at which point the Berner Oberland Pass makes train travel free. Depending on where you are first entering Switzerland, you will need to buy a separate train ticket, for example, from Geneva to Bern or Zurich to Bern. *** The exception to this is that the Berner Oberland Pass DOES cover train travel to/from the Italian border city of Domodossola. So, all the better if you’re entering Switzerland from the direction of Milan because the train ticket from Domodossola to the Berner Oberland is included in the Pass.
Have fun in Switzerland 🇨🇭

The Half Fare Card gives the holder 50% off everything that moves, whether it is a train, a boat, a cablecar, or other high mountain life. Including the pricy Jungfraujoch train, which is only covered at 25% on other passes such as the Swiss Travel Pass and the Berner Oberland Pass.

The Berner Oberland pass give you full coverage (100% off) on everything that moves within the coverage zone, whether it is a train, boat, cablecar, cogwheel train, or other. EXCEPT for the Jungfraujoch train (25% off above Eigletscher station) and the Schilthorn cablecar above Muerren (50% off). But Ist does not include all of Switzerland, only ht Berner Oberland and a bit beyond.

If you are only visiting he Berner Oberland,, then there may be no benefit to getting both. But if one is traveling all around Switzerland, It can be beneficial to get both passes, to have that 50% fare reduction on all trains, boats, etc. outside the Berner Oberland. And if one is spending enough time in the Berner Oberland to need an BO Pass for 8 or 10 days, the discount on the BO pass for holders of the Half Fare Card just about covers the cost of the HFC. For example, full price of an 8-day BO pass is 395 CHF, but with a HFC is it reduced to 287 CHF, a difference of 108 CHF. Since the HFC costs 120 CHF, you wil pay only an additional 12 CHF for all the benefits of a HFC for the rest of your trip. Plus, if you are doing the Jungfrau trip, the greater coverage of the HFC for the last portion of the trip will be worth more than that 12 CHF.

Wowww thanks a million! So nice of you to take the time to reply. Much appreciated. Really :)
This forum is simply amazing!

I have a feeling that the Bernese Oberland Pass is a must-have. I do not feel like waiting on line forever to get tickets, each time we plan an activity. Even if we want to hike a lot, that can be helpful if the weather is bad some days and we want to simply explore the area without having to worry about costs of cable cars? I read somewhere that it is a more convenient option than a way to save money. I guess that is true. And if I calculate right: 120 chf for the Swiss Half card + 50% the Berner Oberland pass would be 288chf. The full price of 4 days using the Oberland pass is also about 280chf. Similar then. Have I understood right?

I do not think we will use 240chf worth of train during our stay (half fare card 120 chf so to save money we need to spend 240chf and more) BUT the 50% off the Oberland pass might be great.

This is the itinerary we plan and trains do not seem too expensive

Jour 1: Vol direct vers Genève

Jour 2: Arrivée Genève. Train to Montreux.

Jour 3: Train vers Le Chable and cable car to Verbier

Jour 4 to 12 : TREK. No transportatation needed

Jour 13: Zermatt: one-way Zermatt to Gornergrat, hike the short Scenic Loop. Hike to Riffelberg. Then to Riffelberg. Break at Riffelalp. Hike to Zermatt

Jour 14: Zermatt. Hike Sunnega Rothorn et Oberrothorn

Jour 15: Zermatt. Hörnlihütte Hiking 4h.

Jour 16: Train to Thun. Boat Thun / Interlaken gratuit. Train to Lauterbrunnen. Cable car to Wengen

Jour 17 : Lauterbrunnen / Murren + hike to Schilthorn-piz Gloria + back to Lauterbrunnen
Jour 18: Lauterbrunnen to the start of
to hike from Schynige Platte to First Cliff Walk (16 kms) Short hike to Bachalpsee. Cable car to Grindewald. Grindewal to Lauterbrunnen

Jour 19: Maybe having fun using some cable cars that day (maybe the Eiger Trail. Train to Kleine Scheidegg/ Mannlichen). Then train from Lauterbrunnen vers Zurich.

Not sure if we are visiting Jungfraujoch
Jour 20 Back home

So in our case, maybe the SWiss Half card + BO 4 days? :)

Thanks again xxx

You most certainly need the half fare card with that itinerary. Your journeys are more expensive than you think and you’ll easily hit 240 chf worth doing all that.

Not sure how you calculated pricing but it’s 196 chf for 4 day BO pass with 1/2 card pricing + 120 chf half fare card = 316 chf

You don’t take 50% off the pass, it’s called the
“Reduced Fare 1/2” on their website and it’s 84 chf cheaper with the half fare card, so you need to use about 80 chf worth of rides outside of the BO, which you’ll do in probably 2 days.

If I understand you correctly, this would be your costs:

Half fare card (HFC) = 120
BO Pass, 4 days, half fare = 196
Total = 316 CHF

Day 16 - you can buy a Saver Day Pass, 29CHF with the HFC, it will cover everything you have listed for that day. Purchase 6 months ahead of time to get the cheapest price

Day 17 - hiking day, no pass needed

Day 18 - Lauterbrunnen - Schynige Platte 19.20 with HFC

First - Grindelwald - Lauterbrunnen 24.20 with HFC

Day 19 - only day that you might actually use the cost of the BO pass, for that day, but certainly not enough to make up what you would have spent to purchase it.

Ah ah my math was bad then lol, but it still sounds a good deal I guess. You are right. I realized that cable cars on Zermatt would also be half price with the Half Fare card so that makes it even more convenient to have it for the entire trip. Not 100% sure we will hit the 240chf on trains and cable cars, but at least we would have tons of options if our itinerary changes. Exemple: bad weather to hike one day: lets go to Bern or Luzern etc..

Thanks xx

Wowww Maureen thanks a lot! Love the idea of the day pass you mention! Tons of readings to do again :)

Ya I think I put this in your other thread, but can’t remember now. When your itinerary is highly hiking based typically the Half Fare Card is fine. I don’t know if you’d get enough value out of the BO pass, other than the convenience of hopping on/off without buying a ticket in some places. But you’d still have to buy your ticket at places like Schilthorn. If you want the most economical option, probably just the HFC alone is enough. If you want the added benefit of no ticket purchases on some of your routes in the BO then you can do the pass but it’s probably a pretty high cost for convenience when you’re hiking so much.

I totally agree with you. I still like the idea of not waiting on line to buy each ticket but as you say, if we hike a lot, it might be expensive :)

Do you have a mobile that you can download the SBB App and use when on Wifi? Do you have data service? The app makes it very easy to purchase tickets on short notice. They are point to point tickets good for the entire day so if you have a pretty firm plan before you head out in the morning you can buy what will need for that day. There are ticket machines in the stations and I don’t recall long lines for those and of course there are manned ticket offices. The only time we had a lengthy wait was buying our first cable car up to Gutschlaft. I don’t know if we hit it at the wrong time but it was totally full of folks buying tickets with a pretty lengthy wait to buy the ticket and again for the cable car. The second time there was hardly anyone there. Go figure.

Yes I downloaded it. Such a great application! I was able to see all the prices, schedule etc... Loved it!! In fact I was more worried about line-ups in the Jungfrau area in summer. We will be going at the busier times so I do not feel like spending 50 minutes at each cable cars lolll.

As mentioned, sometimes a pass is worth it just for peace of mind

I totally agree :)