Is Swiss Half Fare Card really a good deal?
A traveler is planning a week-long trip to Switzerland with their family, starting in Zurich and including stops in Lucerne, Wengen, and a day trip to the Rhine Falls. They are confused about which rail pass to choose, questioning the value of the Swiss Half Fare Card compared to the full fares for their itinerary and other trips like Jungfraujoch.
- Evaluate the Swiss Travel Pass as it might be better for your itinerary due to multiple scenic trips.
- Check the SBB timetable for exact fare prices on bus and gondola trips, as they may not all be covered by the Half Fare Card.
- The tipping point for the Half Fare Card's value is often Jungfraujoch, so calculate how many high-cost trips you'll take.
- Consider using the Excel spreadsheet for rail pass comparisons to determine potential savings better.
AI-generated summary-
Hi,
So please contact: <removed>
Hi Rockoyster –
I think I might not contact such an unknown e-mail address, but perhaps I’m over cautious. Certainly, I have never heard of this scheme before….
Slowpoke
Good Evening Slowpoke,
As all of us are using a “username” on this public forum, i didn’t want to publicize my private email address that contains my name, but once you will contact me there i will answer you from my private email address, if you are worried about a scheme i will send you an expired voucher that i also used to sell as a sample, this kind of vouchers can be verified by the SBB rail company…,
Rubmat
Hi Slowpoke,
See bit.ly/2IFUmxE.
There was a post on here last year from two lads who bought this deal at Geneva I recall. Depends who you strike at the ticket counter I would suggest.
BTW I have an email from SBB which says . . . The Half Fare travelcard (http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelca rds-and-tickets/railpasses/hal f-fare-travelcard.html) is mainly for residents of Switzerland, frequent or longer stay visitors.
However you are absolutely free to purchase one of those if, even if none of that applies to you.It then goes on to provide instructions for visitors. Handy for visitors staying more tha 1 month.
So there is really nothing new under the sun . . .
Hello to everyone
I am really not new into the SBB train tickets and i am well known about ALL sbb tickets, the voucher is definitely valid also for international visitors, if you want you can ask SBB by email or… (i would send you this voucher that expired already and you could attach it when asking sbb by email), i sold already allot of those vouchers in the last 2 years mostly for international guests out of Switzerland, i have also a lot of reviews about this (100% positive).
I don’t say anyone to buy this BUT as i said this is the cheapest option you could get
<“BTW I have an email from SBB which says . . . The Half Fare travelcard is mainly for residents of Switzerland, frequent or longer stay visitors.
However you are absolutely free to purchase one of those if, even if none of that applies to you.It then goes on to provide instructions for visitors. Handy for visitors staying more tha 1 month.
So there is really nothing new under the sun . . .”>>
In fact, it is new. In the past, you had to have a Swiss address. I have a few, at friends.
I guess that they are getting hungry.
Thanks for the update. If we ever stop learning, we are dead.
Slowpoke
How much do you charge for your vouchers Rubmat? Are they linked to TCS membership?
Hi Slowpoke,
I suspect “In the past, you had to have a Swiss address” is one of those urban myths that get a life of their own once initiated.
<<“I suspect “In the past, you had to have a Swiss address” is one of those urban myths that get a life of their own once initiated.”>>
I got it from the SBB website when I first came to Switzerland. One of my friends in Switzerland had half a dozen or so people using his address. I asked at the SBB counter and that is what I was told.
Times change. I tend to be slow to keep up. That said, my Halb-Tax has a Swiss address.
I used to buy the three-year card for around 400 CHF. Since that covered about 8 or 9 trips- even more when I worked a few days per year in Geneva – it was cheap on a per trip basis. And, our office in Geneva explained the residency requirement, when I saw my colleagues using a Halb-Tax in the 1980’s.
These days, my Half Fare Travel card costs me 165 CHF per year upon automatic renewal. A new one is 185 CHF. Obviously, not suitable for a short term traveler, bu they have certainly pushed the cost of the one-month card up closer to that. I can remember when it was 70 or 75 CHF.
I just looked at the SBB website and I can find no residency requirement. So, I guess that all of us that think there is one will have to learn new habits. If I have a few minutes in the train station in May, I’ll stop and ask at the counter.
Slowpoke
Hi all,
The one or more year Half-Fare travelcard was only available to Swiss residents and those of neighboring countries until quite recently. We even had it explained on http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isshalffarecard/detail s back then. As far as I know that restriction no longer applies, but still other restrictions like not being able to buy it online apply to foreigners. It’s just not a tourist product, apart for the very frequent visitor I guess 🙂
The email I got from SBB (you don’t ask, you don’t know) confirms what you say . . . .
Online, postal or direct purchase
If you’re a first time customer without an existing SBB customer number an online travelcard order is only possible, if during the automated process, the Webshop can verify your First and Last Name, as well as Date of Birth with a valid government issued photo ID and the respective countries have provided a verification process of some sorts.
Currently the following countries provide the technological means to do so: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Switzerland
If you have an ID or passport from a different country, the SwissPass Half Fare travelcard may be purchased only using these 2 options:
1) By post mail service: order form (including a copy of a valid government issued photo ID, as well a physical photo) and your handwritten original signature. It’s the same which is attached to this email.
2) Directly at any staffed SBB railway station ticket counter (payment in cash, Reka Checks or by credit card).
Notes:
For legal reasons we require your original handwritten signature, thus can’t accept email orders or the likes.
If during the purchase/order, the postal address of the contract partner is not in one of the above mentioned countries, the automatic renewal is deactivated by default and can’t be overridden and no SwissPass card is issued.
Hi Rockoyster-
<<“1) By post mail service: order form (including a copy of a valid
government issued photo ID, as well a physical photo) and your
handwritten original signature. It’s the same which is attached to this
email.
2) Directly at any staffed SBB railway station ticket counter (payment in cash, Reka Checks or by credit card).”>><<“For legal reasons we require your original handwritten signature,”>>
Good work. I had some hints of that when I renewed mine last Fall, because I did not have a residence permit or a Swiss ID from a Gemeinde . I went in person, because my 3 year Halb-Tax had expired and could no longer be renewed by mail or e-mail.
I mentioned that I had a Swiss mailing address at a friend’s, but that I had no evidence of residence in Switzerland. The clerk smiled nicely and said no problem. She seemed happy to take my money. 😉
I did not want to say that on the forum, because I was not sure, and had been trained in the old system.
It still costs more 185 CHF new, 165 CHF with renewal.
So, the one month visitor’s version costs almost as much as the one year version I got. Still, my old 3-year residents Halb-Tax cost between 400 and 450 CHF.
I suppose that I should be pleased that I get two- count’em -two- embedded chips and the related services that go with the new format, sort of an umbrella concept, now called, confusingly, he Swiss Pass.
Change is constant.
Slowpoke
Thanks for such an interesting thread! Some may remember that last September, at the urging of Swiss friends, I bought a special fare that was sold by SBB to me as a tourist which I later had to return (they refunded my money). So I am glad to see that SBB are relaxing their offering to longer-stay residents.
I just checked out the link and they also have a Supplementary Offer for a 1-month Travel Pass here http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelca rds-and-tickets/railpasses/hal f-fare-travelcard.html and the application form here http://www.sbb.ch/ticketshop/ b2c/adw.do?sprache=en&artikelnumm er=68
Can anyone advise if this looks like it will bring us closer to the ‘old’ month-long (tourist) Swiss Pass? I would be happy to wait and buy this combination of the more expensive Half-Fare Card (185CHF) and Supplementary Offer 1 month Travel Pass (690CHF) at Zurich Airport when we land, rather than buy the tourist Half-Fare Card (120CHF) and 15-day Swiss Travel Pass Flex (840CHF).
This would be a real bonus for us, as we come each year for exactly one month (that being the validity of the previous Swiss Pass!, which despite the great efforts of the MySwissAlps team, was withdrawn).
Cheers from Western Australia, where it is only just starting to feel like autumn…a long summer indeed…
Minnie
Hi Miinie-
<<“So I am glad to see that SBB are relaxing their offering to longer-stay residents.”>>
Residents are not the issue. It is longer stay tourists that have the problems. As a periodic short ( weeks) stay tourist, I find th eone year Halb-Tax to work for me.
Resiedents, if they wish to pay, can buy a one year full-fare travel pass.
Slowpoke
Yes, sorry, I did mean to say ‘longer-term tourists’ (using the word, ‘residents’ was probably wishful-thinking on my part!). 😀
Hello Minnie,
You want to travel 1st Class everywhere? Go for it. 😎
CHF33 Half-fare Card. Can a German speaker translate and summarise this http://www.20min.ch/promotion en/sbb/newsnet/TA-Schnupp.pdf please.
I followed tha tlinkand got-
<<“Da haben Sie sich in der Hausnummer geirrt
Die von Ihnen aufgerufene Seite existiert nicht.
Wahrscheinlich war sie veraltet und wurde gelöscht.”>>
The last two lines are the ones that count-
The site that you have called for does not exist.
Probably it was outdated .and deleted
I don’t understand the meaning of the first line, which says something about having erred about the house number.
Slowpoke
Hi Slowpoke,
That’s strange, I get the attached, which our friend Rubmat was promoting, and is what I was hoping for an interpretation of . . . . .
Attachments:
We are talking about the coupon on the top right ja?
Redeemable for a trial Halbtax for 2 Months at the price of CHF33. Needs to be redeemed between March 24th and May 5th at any SBB Office. Must show official ID. Start date of halb tax can be any day between March 24th and May 5th.
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