Why the vastly different prices SBB vs Omio?
A traveler is trying to figure out the best website for calculating rail fares in Switzerland for a trip from Montreux to Spiez for two adults and two children. They are confused by the varying prices they found on different sites, especially regarding the Swiss Travel Pass and the Swiss Half Fare Card.
- Use SBB for accurate regular ticket pricing comparisons instead of Supersaver fares.
- If you have a Swiss Half Fare Card, kids can travel free with a Swiss Family Card.
- A Junior Travel Card for CHF30 allows kids to travel free for a year, which can help save on overall costs.
AI-generated summary-
Hello,
As others have mentioned, doing rail fare calculations with the handy (and greatly appreciated) spreadsheet is giving me headaches.
I’m finding very different prices for fares on SBB, Omio.com, and RailEurope.com. An example is Montreux-Spiez using the least expensive full-fare option on each site: CHF 127.20 (Omio), CHF 168 (SBB), and USD 247 (raileurope). These fares are for 2 adults and 2 children.
Which website is most accurate for calculating fares to determine potential savings with the Swiss Travel Pass or the Swiss Half Fare Card?
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I only ever use SBB for comparative purposes.
Make sure you are comparing apples with apples. Are you sure the Omio prices are not SuperSaver fares which have a fixed train departure time rather than a fare covering flexible travel on the given route for a whole day. Are you sure you are comparing the same route?
My reading of the SBB timetable says that for Montreux to Spiez an adult full fare is CHF68 and a child <16 >5 fare is CHF38 on the fastest route via Visp. If you go via Zweisimmen on the Golden Pass route then that becomes CHF48 and CHF24.
Hi Nstravelers,
Indeed do read the ticket fine print as there are regular tickets, Supersaver and Saver Day Passes. Price differences should be minimal. Details can be found here:
How to find the standard prices is explained here: http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable. How to compare passes is explained here: http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain/ticketspasses/prac tical/chooserailpass.
Thank you again, rockoyster and Arno! 🙂
I failed to read the fine print. Omio (and Happyrail.com) listed Supersaver tickets. I was unable, however, to get these sites to show regular tickets.
On SBB, it gave saver day pass tickets for my kids (reducing the CHF38 to CHF16). That is why the total I saw was different from rockoyster’s.
On SBB, it gave saver day pass tickets for my kids (reducing the CHF38 to CHF16).
The Saver Day Pass only works with a Swiss Half-fare Card so it doesn’t sound like a sensible/valid option for kids. Certainly not for price comparisons. If you have Swiss Half-fare Card they would travel free with a Swiss Family Card. If that makes sense. The child’s fare I mentioned of CHF34 should have been CHF34 ie half adult fare.
Correction. Swiss Half-fare Card is not essential to take advantage of Saver Day Pass but you still should not use that price for kids for comparative purposes. Even if you don’t have a travel pass yourselves kids can travel free for 12-months with a CHF30 Junior Travel Card.
Hi Nstraveler,
HappyRail shows the best prices by default. Once you see the list of trains with prices, you can click the little drop down at the top and switch from “Best prices” to “Flexible”. That will get you the prices of regular tickets with no restrictions: https://www.happyrail. com/en.
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