[Removed user]

13 June 2016 at 15:59:43 #809437

Based on your previous advice, we purchased Swiss Flex Passes for our upcoming five days of rail travel. Our understanding has been that we could use our four free days and use the Pass’ half-fare feature for our fifth day. I have used the SBB link to see pricing for travel to and from Champex/Zermatt in mid-July and only half fare pricing is available. Our desire is to use one Flex Pass free day for one direction of travel and the half-fare rate for the other direction of travel for Champex/Zermatt trains so that we could use the other three free Flex Pass days for our remaining three rail travel days elsewhere in Switzerland. Please confirm and explain why the posted pricing does not align with what you have previously advised.

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[Arno]

13 June 2016 at 16:46:14 #853060

Hi billw,

I am sorry, but I don’t completely understand what you are asking. From what you write I assume you have purchased the 4-day Swiss Travel Pass Flex Combi. Please note that you can buy tickets at half the fare between the first and last free travel day, as explained here. So you can’t use all free travel days and then buy discounted tickets. But you can use one free travel day to travel to Champex, then buy discounted tickets to Zermatt, and use the remaining 3 free travel days later.

Tickets at both full fare and half fare are always available. They do not sell out. You can buy them at any train station. If you use a free travel day, you do not need tickets.

Please let me know if this answers your question or if there’s anything else you need to know.

[Removed user]

13 June 2016 at 23:14:01 #853061

1. As I understand your response, we can use our first free day on our Flex Pass for travel (bus & train) from Champex to Zermatt, then use the Flex Pass’ half fare feature for return trip from Zermatt to Champex, and later use remaining three free days on Flex Pass for our other three days of train travel in Switzerland?
2. We are baffled that free use of Swiss Pass doesn’t show up as booking option for Champex-Zermatt travel even though this is supposed to be eligible based on your rail travel map.

[Arno]

14 June 2016 at 4:27:47 #853062

Hi billw,

1. Yes, that’s correct.
2. A Swiss Pass is something else and not for tourists. The Swiss Travel Pass Flex won’t show up because there is no such thing as a “free ticket”. You seem to assume you still need tickets on free travel days. That’s not the case. We’ve discussed that in your previous thread: “You don’t need any tickets if you choose the Swiss Travel Pass Flex“. It’s also explained on the Swiss Travel Pass Flex page: “Trips on routes that allow free traveling. On a free travel day, you can just board any train, bus, boat, etc. on such routes. You do not need a ticket“. One of the advantages of having a pass is that you don’t need tickets and just board trains and buses as you like. Since you don’t need tickets, there is no need to check for prices in the SBB timetable. You only need the timetable to check for schedules.

I hope this addresses your concerns!