[Anonymous]

21 June 2019 at 3:00:13 #822388

As a couple of you may know, I recently purchased train tickets from Bregenz to Zurich HB and Zurich HB to Milan for travel in August. Yesterday, Icelandair cancelled our flight to Zurich and are not very cooperative in helping us rebook a workable alternative (but that’s another story). Anyways, after talking to them hopefully for the last time in my life, we cancelled all our flights and our Swiss vacation. I am now trying to cancel other things (hotel, flights, trains) that may be cancellable. I guess I should say refundable. Probably everything is cancellable, haha. The tickets from Zurich HB to Milan are supersaver tickets, so I already know they are not refundable. However, the Bregenz to Zurich HB tickets are Standard Fare tickets. These are normally eligible for exchange/refund, but I am not sure if this applies to me. I purchased them online from the sbb website. I have already printed out the pdf tickets. Somewhere I think I read this makes them non-refundable, but I’m not sure. There aren’t any clear instructions on how to go about cancelling the tickets. It just says “Passengers wishing to claim refunds for unused or partially used tickets must be able to provide suitable proof of this” (whatever that means). I also paid extra for reservations.

My questions are: 1) Are my tickets refundable or am I out of luck since I printed them? 2) if they are refundable, can someone tell me how/where to request it? or 3) even if it is possible to get a refund, is the work involved more hassle than it’s worth.

note: I am in the US and won’t be able to do anything in person. And also the tickets were only 43 each plus the reservations so it’s less than 100 total. I’m inclined to just leave it be, but thought I would ask here before I give up. Thanks.

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[Annika]

Reply 1 of 9 • 21 June 2019 at 6:46:03 #915738

Hi Tuyeda,

How unfortunate that your entire Switzerland trip has to be cancelled due to problems with Icelandair! I can imagine that’s a big disappointment. Hopefully you’ll get to plan another trip soon.

As for your SBB tickets: I don’t think it matters whether or not they’re printed yet. For each type of ticket (national, international, Supersaver fares) the terms and conditions are different. You can apply for your refund online. I’d just try and see what happens. This page should be the right starting point: https://www.sbb.ch/en/ travelcards-and-tickets/buying-options/refund-request.html. The refund form itself seems to be available in German only (there are English forms, but those are meant for business travelers). Maybe Google Translate can do a decent job. In case of questions, you’d best contact the SBB by phone and see if they can help you out.

Good luck, and fingers crossed you’ll get a new chance to visit Switzerland.

[rockoyster]

Reply 2 of 9 • 21 June 2019 at 6:51:05 #915739

That’s too bad. As far as your specific questions are concerned:

1. I don’t think the act of printing makes any difference.

2. You would need to contact SBB. I have had email contact with them in the past and they are usually very helpful.

3. That’s up to you but it’s at least worth a try. They may charge you an administrative charge or they may just say no. You won’t know until you ask them.

I accidentally bought a ticket for the wrong date using the SBB Mobile app while I was in Switzerland. I went into the station at Lugano they gave me a refund. Mind you in that situation I was also buying a replacement ticket for the correct date.

[User]

Reply 3 of 9 • 21 June 2019 at 15:20:26 #915740

Thanks for the link, Annika. I will give it a try.

[User]

Reply 4 of 9 • 21 June 2019 at 15:22:53 #915741

Thanks RockOyster. I’ll try the link Annika gave me and if I can’t get through it, I’ll try to email them instead. Also thanks for your help with my previous questions as well.

[User]

Reply 5 of 9 • 22 June 2019 at 23:25:25 #915742

Hi Annika,

I went to the link that you provided for refunds:

http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelca rds-and-tickets/buying-options/refund-request.html

You had said “The refund form itself seems to be available in German only (there are English forms, but those are meant for business travelers). Maybe Google Translate can do a decent job. In case of questions, you’d best contact the SBB by phone and see if they can help you out.”

When I go to the page, everything is in English (good for me) but something seems wrong.

On the page you provided, I am trying to request a refund for the Bregenz to Zurich HB portion which is a standard ticket. So I choose this option: “To the refund request form for standard tickets purchased with SBB Mobile or from SBB.ch (single journey from A to B, return ticket, Day Pass, class upgrade…)”

It takes me to here: http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelca rds-and-tickets/buying-options/refund-request/online-mobile.html

which includes a form, which is in English… but the questions don’t seem to match a Standard ticket. It appears maybe to be a form mean for Supersaver refunds.

The first question on the form is to select the reason for the refund. My reason is just because I no longer need the tickets. There is no selection for that. The available selections are:

Please choose the appropriate reason for the refund.

• I purchased duplicate tickets online/in the app (travel date, route and passenger – full name and date of birth – are identical), but I only need one.
• I accidentally purchased a ticket with the wrong date. A refund is only possible prior to departure (day of validity).
• I purchased a Half Fare travelcard ticket instead of a full fare ticket, or a full fare ticket instead of a Half Fare travelcard ticket.
• I was verifiably unable to travel (illness or accident).
• I subsequently purchased a personal travelcard for at least 12 months.
• The passenger is deceased.
• I was unable to travel in 1st class due to lack of seats (for 1st class tickets only) (lack of seats confirmed in writing by train staff).
• I forgot my Half Fare/GA travelcard or personal point-to-point/regional travelcard.
• I made a reconnaissance trip as part of a group journey. The ticket cannot be refunded until after the group journey.

Could you send me a link to the German page you mentioned? Maybe I can fill that one out instead…

Thanks.

[Arno]

Reply 6 of 9 • 23 June 2019 at 10:40:01 #915743

Hi Tuyeda,

Perhaps this page is what you’re looking for: http://www.sbb.ch/de/abos-billette/kaufmoeglichk eiten/formular-erstattungsantrag.html.

[User]

Reply 7 of 9 • 23 June 2019 at 22:13:19 #915744

Thanks for the link Arno. Unfortunately, I think it’s the same issue. When I translated the page, it looks like the same page that Annika sent me. The first option is to request a refund for standard fare tickets. But when I click on that link, the form it shows looks the same… i.e. there are several choices for the “reason for refund” but none of them are just to cancel because plans changed. The choices look more like reasons for cancelling a supersaver fare…

I went ahead and emailed them. I got an auto-response saying they will get back to me, so I’ll just wait and see what they say. Thanks for trying to help me though 🙂

[User]

Reply 8 of 9 • 24 June 2019 at 15:02:48 #915745

I got an email back from SBB saying that they have credited me for the Standard Fare trip (less a small fee). I paid 86 for tickets plus 10 for reservations, and they refunded 76, so that’s pretty good.

Thanks again to rockoyster, annika, and arno.

[rockoyster]

Reply 9 of 9 • 24 June 2019 at 20:44:42 #915746

Persistence pays! 🤓