MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial Seat reservation on Swiss trains necessary for group of 6?
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Our group of six will travel in late August to mid-September. Our itinerary: Zurich to Lucerne, Lucerne to Interlaken, Interlaken to Domodossola (via Lotschberg mountain railway.) We do want to sit together so should we buy seat reservations? We will have the Tell Pass, the BO Pass, and the Half Fare Card.
If yes, the next question: Where to buy reservations? I’m confused by all the suggested vendors here.
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Hi jmhilde,
Seat reservations are only mandatory on the Glacier Express, Bernina Express, Gotthard Panorama Express and in Prestige Class on the Goldenpass Express.
Optional reservations within Switzerland are only available on certain types of trains: InterCity (IC/ICE), EuroCity (EC), Treno Gottardo (Zürich or Basel to Locarno) and the Luzern-Interlaken Express.
Specifically for your itinerary:
- Zürich to Luzern – regional train, no reservations possible. Avoid commuter peak hours if possible, as a lot of people travel to Zug for work (and most will get off there).
- Luzern to Interlaken Ost – reservations possible here:
https://shop.luzern.com/en/stories/luzern-interlaken-express
- Interlaken Ost to Domodossola via the Lötschberg mountain route – reservations not possible for the whole route. The sector Interlaken Ost to Speiz could be reserved if you took an InterCity train on this sector, but the trip is only 22 minutes, so not really worthwhile I would think. The sector Spiez-Brig can get very busy, especially with hikers, but many will have left the train by about Kandersteg.
More information about seat reservations, and how to find out how busy your train is expected to be, can be found here:
https://www.myswissalps.com/travel/public-transport/timetable/
If your train is likely to be very busy in second class, you could consider upgrading to 1st class if that will be less busy. (https://www.myswissalps.com/travel/train/classes/)
Hope this helps!
Alpenrose
Hello jmhilde,
A very helpful response from Alpenrose.
Where reservations are possible and preference is that your group can sit together, you may want to purchase your seat reservations.
As mentioned, generally, seat reservations are not necessary aside on the panoramic train rides and you should be able to find seats on your trip. Another handy link to add to Alpenrose’s contribution is this one:
Kind regards,
Yolanda
Thank you both! You have saved me a lot of frustrating and time-consuming searching on the internet!
OK, I will probably make reservations for the Lucerne-Interlaken trip but I won’t worry about the rest. Whew!
I had been thinking about buying a first class BO Pass but after doing some calculations on point-to-point tickets I’m not sure we (all of us in our 60s) will use it enough to justify the cost. Do the mountain lifts even have a first class option?
Another question if I may: I was planning to use the last day of our Tell Pass for the Lucerne-Interlaken train ride and the last day of our BO Pass for the trip to Domodossola. We would purchase point-to-point tickets to get from Zurich to Lucerne. Does this seem like a good plan?
Cheers!
Hi again helpful people!
OK, I tried to make first class reservations on the Lucerne-Interlaken route, only to realize the Tell Pass I was hoping to use is only available as a second class pass! Now I’m attempting to buy upgrades to first class, and then I’ll buy seat reservations. Does this seem correct?
Which then leads me to ask: As I said earlier, I’m not sure our “older age” group will make full use of a first class BO Pass. But we will want to sit in first class on the Interlaken-Domodossola (Lotschberg Mountain) route, for which I was planning to use the BO Pass. Would it make good sense to instead buy a second class BO Pass but then buy first class seat upgrades for the trip to Domodossola?
Oh my, this is complicated! Sure appreciate your advice! 🙂
More confusion: Your website says an upgrade to first class for the Golden Pass “… costs CHF 56 for the entire route Lucerne-Montreux. If you have a Swiss Travel Pass (Flex) or a Swiss Half Fare Card, you’ll pay the discounted fare of CHF 28.” But when I look at the Lucerne-Interlaken route on SBB’s website, the upgrade for that section alone is 58 CHF, 29 CHF with the Half Fare Card.
What am I doing wrong?
Hi jmhilde,
>>> I had been thinking about buying a first class BO Pass but after doing some calculations on point-to-point tickets I’m not sure we (all of us in our 60s) will use it enough to justify the cost. Do the mountain lifts even have a first class option?
The main benefit of the Berner Oberland Pass is the free mountain transport it offers, and none of it has a first class option, so in most cases, a second-class pass is the best choice. It is easy enough to upgrade to 1st class for any longer train trips if necessary, or if you want to travel on the upper deck of a boat.
The class upgrade with a Berner Oberland Pass is usually at full price (i.e. the full difference in fare between a first class and second class fare), but as you also have the Swiss Half Fare Card, you can get the class upgrade at half-price.
>>> I was planning to use the last day of our Tell Pass for the Lucerne-Interlaken train ride and the last day of our BO Pass for the trip to Domodossola. We would purchase point-to-point tickets to get from Zurich to Lucerne. Does this seem like a good plan?
It’s certainly a logical and straightforward plan, and the trip Zürich-Luzern is the cheapest, so a good choice for point-to-point tickets.
>>> Now I’m attempting to buy upgrades to first class, and then I’ll buy seat reservations. Does this seem correct?
You can buy your seat reservations first, and get the class upgrade later. Just as long as you have the class upgrade before sitting down in the first-class carriage, you will be fine. Class upgrades with the Tell-Pass are at half-price, i.e. half of the difference between a 1st-class fare and a 2nd-class fare.
>>> Would it make good sense to instead buy a second class BO Pass but then buy first class seat upgrades for the trip to Domodossola?
Yes, that’s what I would do. As with the Luzern-Interlaken Express, just have your seat upgrades bought before you sit down in the 1st class carriage.
As mentioned above, you are entitled to half-price class upgrades on the basis of having a Swiss Half Fare Card in addition to your Berner Oberland Pass.
The devil is in the detail all right! I hope this clarifies things for you!
Alpenrose
Alpenrose, you’re AMAZING! I had a lot of questions and you answered them ALL! Thanks so very much! 🙂
You’re welcome jmhilde! Glad I could help!
Alpenrose
Hello there jmhilde,
Happy to hear all is now clear. 🙂 As Alpenrose explains, just ensure you have everything to hand before you board the train.
I would do the same too, opt with a second class pass and upgrade to 1st as and when. (You’ll probably find 2nd class will do just fine too ;-))
For point-to-point tickets and if you wanted to buy these in advance, you can find some options in the link below:
Kind regards,
Yolanda
Hi jmhilde,
In regard to your question on the upgrade pricing. All displayed on the webpage is correct, perhaps you typed in the wrong route? I just keyed in a point-to-point upgrade for Lucerne to Interlaken Ost and it displayed CHF 12 – this rate is with the Swiss Half Fare Card discount (it would be CHF 24 without).
Kind regards,
Yolanda
Thanks, Yolanda! And you are correct, I tried again and this time I got the same information you did, CHF 12 per seat upgrade with the Half Fare Pass. So now my reservations and my upgrades have been purchased, yay! 🙂
I think I may have been looking originally at a wrong website, although I don’t know which one. Strange. I’ve also had the odd experience looking at the price of the Half Fare Card, sometimes I see CHF 120 and other times CHF 140! Maybe it’s just my aging brain…
Cheers to all!
Sigh, it’s me again. Now I’m attempting to find class upgrades for the Lotschberg railway route, Interlaken to Domodossola. After many failed attempts I find myself at the BLS website where I succeeded in finding class upgrades for the route but the website won’t let me buy six upgrades! It will let me add passengers but it won’t allow checking “upgrade” for each; instead it’s limiting me to “tickets” for each, which I don’t need because we’ll have the BO Pass.
This is one of the most frustrating websites I’ve ever tried to use. Is there a better way to get my upgrades?
Hi jmhilde,
You can buy class upgrades on the SBB website, the SBB app, from a ticket machine or ticket counter at any railway station in Switzerland. They don’t sell out, and the cost is the same all year, so there’s no rush to buy them
However, if you want to buy them before you arrive in Switzerland, you can do so in the SBB app or on the SBB website here:
Scroll to the heading “Online at SBB.ch.” and click on the link for “Buy a class upgrade for a route online: Go to class upgrades for a route.”
Make sure to put Kandersteg into the via field to ensure you are buying a class upgrade for the Lötschberg mountain route (and not the Lötschberg-Basistunnel). Choose the relevant date and select the half-price option for the “Discount cards” field for each passenger (assuming all passengers have the Swiss Half Fare Card). The class upgrade price per passenger at half price should be CHF 21.00.
Good luck with your class upgrade purchase!
Alpenrose
Success! I did not allow the BLS website to best me! I literally had to load the ID information along with their first class upgrade into the shopping cart individually for each of six passengers, the website wouldn’t let me do all six at once. But by the time I loaded the sixth passenger, the cart showed that the first two orders had expired (after only just a few minutes) and I had to delete them from the cart and load them over again! This happened three or four times, I was pulling my hair out and yelling at my computer like a crazy person! But I got faster each time and finally beat the website before it timed me out, hahaha! 🙂
I don’t play video games but this must be what it feels like to level up and level up and finally beat the boss. I succeeded in getting my upgrades but now I’m exhausted and have far less hair. 😉
Who knew going to Switzerland would be so challenging? I’ve purchased tickets for complicated train routes for up to 17 passengers at a time all over Europe and Asia without this kind of trouble. Even Spain was easier, and that’s saying something!
Thanks again for everyone’s help! I’m sure I’ll be posting more questions in the next few months! 🙂
Thanks, Alpenrose! Your system was far easier than what I did on BLS, LoL!
I swear I tried SBB first, only the website kept sending me to tickets instead of upgrades. Guess I didn’t have your magical link. 😉
My upgrades on BLS say “Interlaken Ost to Domodossola via Lotschberg and Brig.” I used Kandersteg as my “via” and the price was CHF 21 so hopefully I got the correct route. After all that work I’d hate to spend most of the journey in a long dark tunnel!
Cheers!
Hi Jmhilde,
You can find information about how to upgrade to 1st class if you have a 2nd class tickets here: https://www.myswissalps.com/travel/train/classes/
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Anna
Hi jmhilde,
Glad to see that your persistence paid off and you now have your class upgrades!
Alpenrose
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