4 days Lucerne trip on way from Paris to Milan

Thanks for the useful hints. I thought it is possible to book 120 days in advance in SBB , correct ?

The booking time frame usually depends on the train route and the operator (which is not just SBB in this case). To Italy, it's 3 to 4 months regardless of where you book the ticket (see here). Things like this tend to change every now and then, so you can give it a try 4 months ahead of time for your route.

Hi

Right now i am booking ticket for Paris - Basel through SBB . I want to select family seating for 4 passengers. I am getting this message !Carrie 1 Asile , 1 window , 1 Asile, 1 window ..... what does this mean?

also there is no display of seat numbers while booking . does seat numbers appear once payment is made and eticket received ?

in voyages-sncf.com the seat nos and carriage no is mentioned after seat selection

Hi Sethu,

Actually I don't think the SBB site is using that text. Are you 100% sure there are no typos in your quote?

You can easily select your seat type (windows, aisle, and even forward facing) on tgv-lyria.en.voyages-sncf.com/en/. The exact seat number is not relevant while booking; it will be assigned automatically after paying, and printed on your ticket.

Does this answer your question?

By the way, you can edit your message if you want to correct it after posting. There's an edit button right after posting a message. I corrected your 4:44 PM post and removed the other two.

Arno

my question was " while we can easily select our seat type (windows, aisle, family seating and even forward facing) on tgv-lyria.en.voyages-sncf.com/en/. " is the same possible on SBB website ? Pl see screen shot 1 of attachment , in SBB the choice is only between window, middle & aisle there is no option for family seating. After selecting seat in I see the message ! Carre 1 Asile, 1window.....pl refer screen shot 2 of attachment.

another question , I see in non exchangable tickets offer in sncf on all days except 16th of May where there is no nonexchangable tickets , why is this ? refer attachment.

Hi Sethu,

You can pick seats on the SBB site too, but it works differently there. Details can even be different per train. The resolution of your screenshot is too low to read the text, but I went ahead and tried it myself. To me it presents "window, middle, aisle, stand-alone seats". I did not see "carre" and "asile", although I would assume that "carre" means 2 seats facing 2 other seats, so a group of 4.

Ticket types, such as the cheaper non-exchangeables, can sell-out. Although I would not expect that this far ahead of time. It would also be possible that tickets become available if you wait a bit, until 3 months before traveling for example. In general it's best to book early though. I don't have more details than that as I can't access their systems. You can try the several retailers listed at myswissalps.com/ traintickets/france/ price. One may have more options than the other for a particular date, even though they're selling tickets for the same trains.

Hi Arno

Finally i have booked my ticket from Paris to Basel. I will reach Basel leaving on 10:23 and arriving at Basel at 13:26 on 17th May.Thanks to all your inputs. I shifted my travel date by one day as the tickets on 16th were very expensive (don't know why - may be there is a Soccer match at in france on the train route !). I will be travelling from Basel to Lucerne by 14:04 train reaching at 15:05. ticket cost for Basel -Lucerne w/o pass is 16.5 CHF.

17th May - check in at IBIS hotel @Lucerne . 16:30 to 18:00 Lucerne siteseeing.

18th May - Visit Titilis , on return trip use boat ride for travel from Engelberg (Stanstad) to lucerne. With Swiss PAss ( 210 CHF) cost 56.5 CHF. Without Swiss Pass cost 101 CHF.

19th May - Visit Jungfrau. I dont know cost difference with and w/o pass.

20th - Travel to Milano. Ticket cost w/o pass is 10 CHF.

Pl tell me should I buy a 3 day travel pass or is it cheaper to buy direct tickets without pass.

Hi Sethu,

Great, you're getting there :-) Please double check your prices. Basel to Lucerne is CHF 33 without a pass. A ticket to Milano (not sure where from) will be more expensive than CHF 10 without a pass. Jungfraujoch prices can be found through the link at the bottom of www.myswissalps.com/ju ngfraujoch/tickets. The discounts with a Swiss Travel Pass (Swiss Pass is something else) can be found through myswissalps.com/swisst ravelpass/validity. You may also want to compare with the Swiss Half Fare Card. How to do so is explained here. You definitely need one of these passes. Regular tickets are too expensive.

Hi Arno

I have completed booking all my train tickets for travel from Paris -Basel , lucerne-milano-venice-florence-roma. In all the case I booked it exactly 119-120 days in advance and got the cheapest non refundable ticket. e.g all price for 4 persons :- Paris-basel 154 Euro, lucerne-milano 36 Euro , Milano-Venice 76 Euro, Venice-Florence 109.5 Euro, Pisa-Roma 46 Euro. For Milano -Venice there was a ticket for 36 Euro but by the time I came to payment page the ticket got sold out and i had to settle for the next offer which was 76 Euro. Mind you most of these are non refundable tickets. So if one is sure on the dates, it is best to book 120 days in advance and get the cheapest offer. I have already reserved hotel in all the cities using Booking.com, 5 months in advance with pay when you stay condition.

Now I need to finally decide on swiss half fare card or Swiss Travel Pass. I have planned the following travel inside swiss.

Day 1 - Travel from Basel to Lucerne , cost of train ticket. Lucerne sightseeing . (do we need to use public transport ? if yes cost of ticket). Overnight stay at Lucerne.

Day 2 - travel to Titilis from Lucerne and return to Lucerne

Day 3 - travel to Jungfrau from Lucerne & return to Lucerne.

Day 4 - Travel to Milano from Lucerne , Ticket already booked.

What do you suggest - swiss half fare card or Swiss Travel Pass. Also is the price of Swiss Travel Pass fixed or are there some websites offering discounted price for 3 day Swiss Travel Pass?

Hi Sethu,

Glad to hear your bookings are done! As for traveling within Switzerland: as you have a ticket for day 4 you only need a pass for the first 3 days. I expect the Swiss Half Fare Card to be cheaper overall, but you may want to compare it to a 3-day Swiss Travel Pass as explained here. You don't need public transport in the town center of Lucerne if you don't mind a bit of walking. But it's included for free in the Swiss Travel Pass.

The pass price is different for each retailer. Click "Price" on the pages I gave you to see all details. But at the moment, it makes sense to buy through www.swissrailways.com/ en. When asked for delivery options, pick "Online Ticket" so you can print it at home.