UK travelers: buy passes before the price increase
Arno is sharing valuable advice on purchasing train passes in Switzerland, noting that online prices are about to increase by 10%. A traveler mentioned trying to buy Swiss Half Fare Cards for a June trip but encountered a two-month advance purchasing limit, making them unable to take advantage of the current lower prices.
- Buy your Swiss Travel Pass online before February 2 to avoid a price increase.
- If your trip is more than two months away, you can still order passes now, but they won't be sent immediately.
- For travelers from the UK, there's no shipping fee when selecting the online ticket option, which can be printed at home.
- Check your local reseller for better prices before ordering, especially if you're outside Europe.
AI-generated summary-
Dear travelers,
As announced recently, it’s much cheaper to buy your passes online than at the station in Switzerland. However, the online prices in GBP will be increased by about 10% on February 2, 2015. If you live in the UK or Ireland, now is the time to purchase your passes for this year!
To purchase at the current low price, please visit the Swiss Railways webshop at http://www.swisstravelsystem. co.uk.
Low prices in GBP are also still available via http://www.acprail.com, but I don’t know how long that will last.
All points of sale can be found on our pass page, like the Swiss Travel Pass page.
Hopefully you can take advantage of this. Enjoy your train rides!
Arno
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Hi, I’m new to this site but finding it very useful! So thank you! My husband and I are off with friends to Switzerland in our motorhomes in June. We were going to purchase Swiss Half Fare Cards so, after receiving the notice re increased prices, I logged onto the Swiss Travel System page and began to order our passes. However, just as I was about to put in my card details a message came up stating that you cannot order the card more than two months ahead of your holiday. So unfortunately I have been unable to take up this offer. Thought other members might be interested in this. Shame, as 10% is a big increase!
Thanks for your compliment Gily6855! That note about the 2 months is just about the issueing of the passes. You can go ahead and purchase now, they just won’t send the passes right away because your trip is more than 2 months away. There are people ordering a year in advance, so that’s no problem whatsoever.
Hi Arno,
Thanks for the info. Do all prices generally increase during Feb time-frame? I will be buying shortly from Canada. Also, does buying through 3rd party provide any extras rather than buying from SBB directly?
2 things I noticed, thought wud share, lower online cost is offset by CHF45 shipping fee they r charging to send the cards to me here and also if you try to buy online before 2 month of your start date, it’s greyed out, does not allow.
Hi marchendtrip,
This announcement is just for travelers from the UK and Ireland. For the UK, there are no shipping costs for those why prefer to receive physical tickets. But if one selects “Online Ticket”, the pass can be printed at home and hence there is no shipping fee either.
You’re from Canada. If you prefer to order through the SBB, you’d better not use the UK site, but the international SBB webshop. Payment is in Swiss francs there. For a better deal you can order through your local Canadian reseller here: raileurope.ca/rail-tickets-passes/swiss-pass/index.html. Those prices are much lower at the moment. I don’t know how long they will keep that up through.
Regardless of where you live you can always compare prices in the Price sections of any of our pass pages, like here. Please check if your country of residence is set correctly on that page. It should be okay automatically.
I have not experienced the 2 month limit. I just tried to order for June and that worked. Which exact website were you trying?
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