Where to buy Swiss Pass?
 

I am in the midst of doing all my research to figure out what pass will work best for me. It looks like a Swiss Saver Flex Pass will do the trick.

Is there any advantage to buying in advance off the SBB website? Or is it just as simple and easy to buy it at the Zurich airport when we land? Just trying to figure out the urgency of pre-ordering...

I don't think you can buy off the Swiss website (assuming you are American). And from what I've heard, it's more expensive to buy a Swiss pass once in Switzerland for Americans so I would recommend getting it ahead of time.

I went through BETS to buy my pass (www.budgeteuropetravel.com). Byron is the dude there with all of the Swiss knowledge, so ask for him. Passes through them are the same price as Raileurope but you get the added benefit of talking to a live person and someone who has actually traveled to Switzerland many times. And they send you some other info in the mail too, like a comprehensive Eurail timetable.

I believe they have to be purchased in the USA. You can buy them from RailEurope.com.

Great info thanks! I think I will speak to the live person at BETS. I want to buy a second class pass, but want to make some seat reservations in first class panorama cars. Hopefully he can walk me through that. It's very confusing on the internet....

Your Second Class pass is NOT going to allow you to ride in any of the First Class Panaorama cars..or do you already know that?

Pass prices are set by the railroads. What agencies such as BETS and RE, etc., may or may not do is tack on additional S+H fees which will drive up the price.

You can actually buy some types of passes in Switzerland as well as the half-fare card but I don't believe the Flexi passes are included.

I bought about 10 of these a few years ago from Rick Steves. I used them because his staff was great in helping me pick the best pass type for my group. (RailEurope was NO help, they just kept telling me I need the most costly thing they could find LOL!)

Raileurope does charge shipping and handling fees; BETS does not.

Not sure about Rick Steves.

Dukey, does that mean in order to use the panoramic cars, I have to buy a 1st class flexipass? There is no upgrade available for purchase for specific trains or trips?

As far as I understand, most of the scenic trains have 2nd class panoramic cars as well. e.g. Goldenpassline, Bernina, Glacier Exp. Only Swiss Chocolate -Gruyeres trip and William tell do not have 2nd class arrangement. Obviously they are bound to upgrade you to the 1st class cars.
K.

Well, the two name trains we have plans to take are the William Tell from Locarno-Lucerne, via Fluelen; and the Goldenpass Panorama from Lucerne-Interlaken. Will we miss much by sitting in second class?

We bought ours at Zurich airport. We made the glacier and bernina express reservations at that point and worked out well. They were 2nd Class with Panorama windows.

Rememeber that the pass will get you either free admission or deep discounts to all museums and half price on most cable cars.

Last time I took it, the GE did not have Panorama cars for 2nd Class passengers.

I've used the GE with a pass and paid for the seat reservations in the panorama cars but I have always had a First Class pass. The pass "pays" for the basic journey in a particular class so i don;t see how you could use a 2nd Class pass to be in a First Class panorama car.

OTOH, no you will not miss anything if you are in 2nd Class on either the Golden Pass or the GE. the panorama car windows are simply larger on the GE but the windows in 2nd Class as well as those in non panorama car First actually open.

Dukey, I had the impression that one can upgrade. But well as you say, now I think that I might be wrong. I have just emailed to swiss tourism for clarification. Will get back with clarification soon.

mjknycmjk,
check on the lake lucerne site or http://myswitzerland.raileurope.com/...lliam_tell.htm for daetails.
You are planning Lugano to Lucerne journey. It seems that it is not possible to do the reverse [Lugano-Lucerne] on the official WT express.
As you know one can do the same journey on routine [steamer and sorry- non panoramic car in a train ]with the pass.

After Glacier Express was closed last fall the cars were refurbished and i believe 2nd class now has panoramic cars.

And though you can buy Swiss Passes in Switzerland last time i checked they were actually about 10-15 higher for the same pass as thru BETS or RailEurope - ironic in that the Swiss railways own a chunk of RailEurope!

Here is the Rick Steves' info on chosing a rail pass in Switzerland.

http://ricksteves.com/rail/ausswitz.htm

I have ridden the Glacier Express and the Bernina Express and like 2nd class better. The Panorama cars are hot and you are not able to open the windows.

We rode the Glacier Express on a particularly nice day with exceptionally nice people. We took a picnic lunch, as did everyone else, and ended up sharing a corkscrew for the wine and setting up a buffet for everyone in the car. We were glad to be able to open the windows as it was extremely warm for March.

Re William Tell and Golden Pass OP wants to do in Panoramic cars-

you can pay an upgrade on either i believe to sit in 1st class with a 2nd class pass - the difference between the regular 1st and 2nd class fares for the rides.

William Tell Lucerne-fluelen is by paddlewheel steamer and includes a meal and for that portion is first-class only (on Swiss boats first-class passes and tickets can sit on the top, open-air deck whilst 2nd class is relegated to the bottom floor only - at least everyone i've been on)

that said views from the lower level can be nice too though if crowded there are far fewer desirable seats.

I'd go 2nd class and same on train part of Wm Tell route to Lugano. William Tell provides canned commentary but that's all you'll miss besides nicer doilies on the seats in terms of scenery - of course first class seats are always roomier than 2nd class - on any Swiss train. You can take the same route anytime you want if you don't do the official Wm Tell boat-train - boats leave frequently enough and there are hourly trains at least Fluelen-Lugano. And since WmTell includes a meal the reservation fee is about $45 i believe and an upgrade would be much more than that.

Same for Golden Pass train, though ask BETS if there is 2nd class observation cars on that train - could be and like jenblase says they will know the answer.

But on Golden Pass in first class observation cars there are very fancy swivel seats - novel for any train i've been on and these may be worth the not too expensive surcharge for going first class with your second class pass.

But of course the scenery is the same if you ride the normal hourly trains that go over the same route and even non-panoramic cars have big windows, just not glass domes.

I want to very much agree with the statement that the Panarama cars can be unbearably hot.

We were in Switzerland this past July and it was HOT in the car. I live in the tropics and am used to high temperatures - it was still unpleasantly hot. Think greenhouse effect.

Of course it's unlikely to be very hot, the reason perhaps these cars are not air-conditioned.

But it always can be hot in summer - like the infamous summer of 2004 (?) when i was in Interlaken and the temps at night fell to 95 degrees and even on top of the Jungfrau in the day it was 80 degrees.

but really unlikely i think - unless the glass effect on sunrays makes them always hot? could be

About the Swiss Flexipass and 50% discounts.

There has been a discussion in the past whether you get the 50% discount off everything that moves in the country for the whole one-month period or just between your first and last day of use of your 100% covered travel days.

The problem arose because of poor wording on the pass conditions which implied the 50% expired after the final day on your 100% days expired. i.e. after using the 3rd day of a 3-day Swiss Flexipass you would no longer get the 50% discount for the rest of the month.

After e-mails to Swiss Rail, etc. it was the thought that you would get the 50% off for the whole month regardless of whether you had days left on your pass or not. And RailEurope, the wholesaler of these passes in the U.S. and in which Swiss Railways is a minority shareholder (French railways have the rest) confirmed this.

But lo and behold a few weeks ago i saw a RailEurope bulletin that said this policy had been changed and now after your final day of 100% travel expires you do not get the 50% off anymore.

So if this is how it is interpretted in Switzerland, which i don't know, you must save your final day to get the 50% off - whereas before a person say staying in Lucerne and going back to Zurich airport could have bought a 50% off on this relatively cheap ticket now he'd have to use his final day of 100% travel to return there or pay full fare.

And it's still not clear if you get 50% off things before you use your first 100% travel day - say it landing in zurich and doing the cheap train to Lucerne - perhaps you'd have to use a day on the pass (not a good investment) or get no discount?