Swiss Card and Swiss Transfer Ticket. What is the difference

Wow...Thank you. I am still very confused. The easy part is no children under 16. We do have one that will be 24 years old. Now the many questions. I saw that there is also a Swiss Pass and a Swiss Flexi Pass that is currently buy one get one free. That part I understand. on myswissalps.com it shows a price of 271.84 CHF good through 11/30/12 however when I priced through with 6 of us it comes up 226.Chf for 3 and the other 3 free. The Swiss Flexi was about 30 chf more. This seems like a great deal. Would it be worth it if know for sure we are going Zurich to Wengen. We will also go to Lucerne. Geneva if possible, Lugano, Jungfrau etc. It says in the heading a 4 day 2nd class? What do you do on the other days. Could we use to get to the border of Switz/Italy on last day and then buy an Italian ticket? Your input would be great. Also if you understand diffence between Swiss Pass and Swiss Flexi pass. Then there is the offer at swisspasses.com Buy one get one 7 consecutive day pass? This looks very good also.Any idea on this one? Your help is so appreciated

Hi cherylthe various Swiss passes can be pretty confusing. The chart on the Railpass page on this webiste it very good at explaing the differences, but the best pass for you depends on what youplan to do. Here is the difference between the Transfer Ticket (TT) and the Swiss Card: The Transfer Ticket gives you one trip in each direction, in and out of Switzerland. In your case, Trip 1 would be from the Zurich airport to Wengen, and Trip 2 would be From Wengen to the Swiss/Italy border station. The Transfer Ticket costs $144 in 2d class. The cost of travel from Zurich airport to Wengen is 65 CHF, and from Wengen to Domodossola (your fastest rout into Italy) is also 65 CHF. So a TT gives you 130 CHF worth of travel for $144, which is not a good deal. However, it would also cover you if you went the faster, less scenic route via Bern, which costs 82 CHF, so that is a better deal. The Swiss Card (SC) is a Transfer Ticket plus a Half Fare Card for intermediate travel. The SC costs $206, so for the $62 extra over a TT you are getting a half Fare Card, which would cost 110 CHF if you bought it alone. This IS a good deal as it gives you 50% off everything, including the expensive Jungfraujoch trip. This is probably your best deal for best price and maximum flexibility. To be continued. . .

The other option to consider, if you know you are doing lots of expensive travel in the region, is a Transfer Ticket plus a 7-day Berner Oberland pass, which would give you 3 "fully covered" days and 4 more at 50%. I doubt this would beat the Swicc Card overall but if you plan on spending 3 whole days traveling with lots of transfers, it would be very convenient. This won't fully cover travel to Luzern; it goes partway (past Mieiringen) and then you pay 50%. For your return to Switzerland from Italy, don't use your Swiss Card (it won't work after you use it to exit Switzerland). Instead, buy a discount ticket from Milan to Zurich in advance on SBB or Trenitalia. On SBB is it called "Special Offer" and costs around 30 CHF instead of the usual 86 or so. On Trenitalia is it called a "Smart Fare" and I don't know how the cost compares so check. But either one 2 months or more in advance to get the deal. If you buy it from SBB, the ticket must be picked up in Switzerland at a train station, so be sure to do that before you leave Switzerland. Are any of the six children under 16? Then they go free in Switzerland with a free Family Card.

OK. First off, the 2-for-1 deals are for travel in April, May, September or October. If your Swiss travel is in June, July or August you can't use this deal. Instead, use the "Saver" prices for 2 or more traveling together. The 262 CHF Flex Pass is 222 CHF with the Saver discount. A Swiss Pass comes in consecutive days, like 4, 8, or 15. It fully covers trains, boats, and cable cars as far as a village on those days; lifts above the village (like train to Jungfraujoch above Wengen) are covered at a discount. A Flex Pass, on the other hand, is a "" pass. For a 4-day Flex, you choose 4 days within a month to use it. One has to be the first day and the other the last. Between those two days, you would get 2 more fully covered days, and the rest is 50% off. So, for example, you could use a 4-day Flex to travel as follows: 1. Airport to Wengen 2. Daytrip to Luzern from Wengen (round trip) 3. Leaving for Italy, Wengen to the border
4. Coming back from Italy, border to Zurich (however if you get those cheap tickets I mentioned it is not worth a pass day to cover this.) Other days, visiting Jungfraujoch, maybe a ride on Lake Brienz, are covered at 50% (but only 25% for the Jungfrau). There is a Youth Price for the Swiss Pass but not for the Flex. We mostly use a 3-day Flex (Saver) when we are in Switzerland. To use one, I take the price divided by the number of days, and only use the pass if the trip costs more than that. for example, the 4-day Saver is 222, so each trip has to cost more than 55 CHF to be worht using a "pass" day. Otherwise we use the 50% off feature. I did not see a 7-day pass on Swisspasses.com, other than th eBerner Oberland Regional Pass I mentioned above. bottom line is if you are in Switzerland in May, Sept. or Oct. one of the 2-for 1 deals is your best option.

Lola Thank you so much. I think I am catching on. We will be traveling in October so we would qualify for the buyone getone. I too thought the Swiss Flex would work for us. It amounts to $262 CHF for 2 which is really cheap. I will work on my day drips before purchasing. But I do think this may be the way to go. You have been so helpful. Thankyou. Do you happen to know where I can get/order a full size map showing the train/bus/boat routes it is hard to follow on the computer. Thanks Again
Cheryl

Yes, if you are thee in October than the 4-day 2-for-1 Flex Pass should be your best deal by far. You can buy them on this website in dollars, so compare the exchange rate to see which is best. The only train/bus/boat map I have seen is this one: http://www.swisstravelsystem.com/download_sts/uebersichtskarte_en.pdf You should be able to enlarge it to see the detail of any specific area. If the link does not work, just google "Swiss synoptic map." They give you a printed version with your Swiss Pass or Fles Pass, but it is pretty small.

Hi Lola I have been following this thread as there are four of us going to Switzerland in September and we are trying to figure out the best pass to buy. Sounds like we can take advantage of a two for one sale which is wonderful. You reference that you can buy the passes on this site in dollars. Where to you access that link. Your information is very helpful. Thanks
Cathy

HI Lola
I am back. Still trying towork out the best deal for in country travel for the 6 of us. I am leaning towards the Buy One get one Swiss Flexi Pass. It comes down to approx 131.00 CHF pp. That if I use your formula would be about 33.00 CHF per day to get our value out of it. So our first day would be arrival day 10/5 Zurich to Wengen. 4 of us arriving then 2 more arriving on 10/6. So that would leave us 3 more full days of unlimited travel (correct) and the remaining time there 50% or 25% off depending on rail. Now that brings me to the next question. Along with the above pass we could purchase the saverfare from Milan back to zurich(or the Italian border) not sure. I am pretty sure we will end our stay in Italy at Cinque Terre area and have to return from there to Zurich. Any ideas on that route. Would we be able to get a saver fare or should we get to the border and then use the last day of our Swiss Flexi pass to get us to the Zurich Airport. As you can see I am still a bit confused but think I am getting it. If I totally understood the Swiss Regions I would look more seriously into the regional passes that are buy one get one. I really appreciate any more input. Thanks again.