[Removed user]

25 February 2011 at 0:53:54 #804153

Hi,

I and my wife plan to reach Zurich from London on 23rd may 2011. My itinerary is like this:

a) Reach Zurich 23rd Morning and immediately leave for Luzern.
b) 2 nights in Luzern, leave for Interlaken on 25th May.
c) 3 nights in Interlaken, leave for Zermatt on 28th May.
d) 2 nights in Zermatt, leave for Zurich on 30th May.

Queries:
1) Does a 8 day Swiss Saver pass suit my requirements?
2) Am I eligible for the free upgrade to 1st Class?
3) Are all my journeys , i.e: Zurich-Luzern-Interlaken-Zermatt-Zurich covered in the Swiss Saver pass? or do I buy seperate tickets for these journeys? How do I reserve my seats?
4) How do I book my excursions to Jungfraujoch, Pilatus?

Thanks!

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[Annika]

25 February 2011 at 5:10:17 #832290

Hi pranz78, and welcome! As for your questions:

1) Yes, an 8 day Swiss Saver Pass may suit your needs, especially if you’ll be making journeys when staying in Lucerne, Interlaken and Zermatt as well. If not, you may also consider a Swiss Saver Flexi Pass, which offers free travelling on a number of days, and a 50% discount on all days in between. This might turn out to be a bit cheaper.

2) Whether you can make use of the current free upgrade to 1st class, depends on your country of residence. The offer is available for travellers from some countries, which are listed in our forum note on this offer.

3) All journeys you mention are covered by the Swiss Saver Pass, so you don’t have to buy separate tickets. Seat reservation isn’t necessary, as regular trains are concerned. Seat reservation is only required for special panoramic trains, but you don’t seem to be travelling in one of them.

4) You don’t have to book trips to the Jungfraujoch and to Pilatus in advance, and I would even advise not to do so. These trips are only worth your money if weather is fine. If you’ve pre-booked these trips, and the weather is disappointing, so will be your trips up in the mountains. You can best decide on the spot whether it’s clear and sunny enough to get up. So you can buy your tickets right before boarding at the valley station. For the Jungfraujoch trip, this is Interlaken. Pilatus tickets can be purchased at the valley stations in Alpnachstad and Kriens, both close to Lucerne, and most probably at the railway station of Lucerne too.

I hope this answers your questions!

[Removed user]

2 March 2011 at 3:52:33 #832291

I like the idea of the first class upgrade on the Swiss Pass ! Is the upgrade available for a Swiss FlexiPass ? If not are there are any plans to do this ? I arrive in 4 weeks

[Annika]

2 March 2011 at 11:17:19 #832292

Hello Parmo! Currently, the offer is only valid for Swiss Passes. Details are described in our forum note on this offer. I don’t know if offers for the Swiss Flexi Pass are planned.

[Removed user]

10 March 2011 at 11:01:52 #832293

Hi!
i just recieved my Swiss Saver 2nd class pass from Rail Europe. I am an Indian citizen and my pass was mailed from Rail europes Bombay office.
Nowhere on the pass does it say FREE UPGRADE TO 1ST CLASS!
I spoke to Rail Europe Bombay and they said it should have been printed on the pass and they have no clue what went wrong…
please help!

[Arno]

10 March 2011 at 11:22:29 #832294

Hi pranz78,

I’m sorry that you received the wrong pass. I don’t know what happened. You really need to solve this with RailEurope. I’m sure they’ll be able to sort this out. Are you sure you ordered the upgrade pass they offered? If you ordered a regular 2nd class pass, you will not get an upgrade. Did you receive a confirmation e-mail from them that you can post here? Perhaps that will give us a clue about what went wrong.

[Removed user]

11 March 2011 at 1:28:49 #832295

Dear Moderator,
I logged in to my account at swiss alps and went to the India link for the Swiss Saver pass . It took me to the Rail Europe website which said there is a free upgrade right on the first page. The link…:

http://www.raileurope.co.in/rail-products/rail-passes/article/swiss-pass

It has a link which says Book your pass now on the right side.

I used that to book!

Isnt it unusual for Rail Europe to offer the Free upgrade and the Regular pass for the same country at different links? Should they not have had one link since they were offering the free upgrade to 1st class for Swiss Saver passes from India? I mean, who in their right mind would want to NOT take the free upgrade to 1st class at 2nd class fares?

P

[Arno]

11 March 2011 at 2:58:43 #832296

Hi P,

I looks like you’ve ordered the regular 2nd class pass, from RailEurope’s regular Swiss Pass page. Rail Europe offers both an upgrade and the regular pass, because there are still some people who are better off using the regular pass. For example when traveling with others who cannot use the offer, or when traveling after or around June 30, when the offer expires. For others who read this thread: if you want to make use of Rail Europe’s free upgrade to 1st class, you can best use the direct link to the offer from here. However, if you go to their regular Swiss Pass page, you can still click to the page with the offer from there.

Anyway, I surely understand your confusion. It’s just unpleasant to get another pass than the one you intended. However, is noticed from your first post that there’s plently of time before you leave, so I would suggest to contact Rail Europe again and explain what happened. They are probably able to exchange your pass for the right one. I don’t know whether there are costs involved. That’s up to them.

Just let me know if you have further questions!