5 days in Jungfrau with Swiss Half Fare Card

“ As an aside, I discovered that when looking up bus/tram fares, the SBB timetable allows you to choose between 1st and 2nd class fares.”

Odd indeed. The SBB app even offers you a class upgrade option if you have a 2nd class ticket or pass. Nice little earner for SBB if people are silly (or ill-informed) enough to fall for it. I wonder if there is a Swiss Consumer Affairs department that’s might be interested in this practice?

At least they don’t offer 1st Class on cable cars.

<<"At least don’t offer 1st Class on cable cars">>

However, you can ride on the roof of some of them, and pay extra. The higher the fewer. ;-)

Slowpoke

Just to confirm, and after about 3 months calculating I have finally worked it out, (I think lol) my Swiss trip is in January entering from Austria my trips are Buchs - St Moritz-Zermatt-Murren-Lucern-Zurich plus mountain trips etc etra, 11 days in Switzerland, so I have bought a Half Fare Card and will be trying to buy half price Saver Day Pass at Chf29 for any train trip where the half fare cost is over say Chf40, (the half fare card at 120 for 11 days is about Chf11 a day, so on any day where the half fare cost is more than 40 I will be saving by buying an additional Swiss Day pass at 29. So like Glacier Express say 180, I should be able to buy for 29 (sdp) with my HFC (11 per day) total of 40. Could someone confirm this is correct, thanks again..

<<"Glacier Express say 180">>

You logic is good. You'll get 50 % off the cableways, etc.

Not speaking from knowledge, but just thinking about contingency planning...if you can't get a Saver Day Pass for the GEX, try the local trains on the same lines.. More changes, but the same scenery.

Slowpoke

Thanks Slowpoke, I looked at that just bit concerned that both of us will have 1 piece medium size luggage plus backpack and unsure how far it is between platforms when we need to change, the time allowed varies from 5 to 15 minutes thats providing trains run on time, but i guess even if we miss one connection there be abother one so if we leave St Moritz about 8 to 9 am we should get to Zermatt b4 sunset LOL

All small stations with short, easy connections.

Slowpoke

Hi Tonyw,

I see what you did there but I would adopt a simpler methodology. If the sum of the half-fare tickets for a given day is more than CHF29 then go for the Saver Day Pass.

Slowpoke said "if you can't get a Saver Day Pass for the GEX" but that is misleading. A Saver Day Pass is not tied to specific trains. Take the Glacier Express, Saver Day Pass and all. Mucking about changing trains is not worth the hassle and at least you can tell your friends you travelled on that world famous train.

i agree but i just bought 2 x half fare cards yesterday, thats why i have to look at the day spend in excess of 40 ( thats allowing 120 divided by 11 days in switzerland to pay for half fare card 120), there are probably only 1 day where it will be more than 40 and thats on the GEX

For accuracy I should have said " If the sum of the half-fare tickets for trips within the SDP validity area on a given day is more than CHF29 then go for the Saver Day Pass."

There's not much use including cable cars or other routes not covered by the SDP in that tally.

Also if you buy a CHF29 SDP for the GEX then you could say you have just saved CHF151 off the regular fare and have therefore already broken even on the SHFC so your CHF11/day recovery amount becomes academic.

Hi all!

Just to get back on the calculation tool: we've certainly given this idea serious thought over the past years and it's on our wish list for future additions (like many other items). We may release a simple or even a full version one day. But again: creating such a tool that conveys the "one and only" pass may seem simple, but is in reality very difficult. It would take an extreme amount of time to design, create and maintain such a tool. Yes, the SBB has an API, as suggested by Kubikov, although I'm not sure if it exposes prices too. Even if it would, those wouldn't be complete, as the SBB doesn't list prices for all routes (think of routes that are partly covered by foreign railway companies, small bus and mountain companies, and so on). Then one would have to manually enter such prices for all varying legs. Maintenance would require a lot of effort too. There's much more going on than the regular price and coverage updates that happen once a year, such as seasonal price changes, varying offers by many ticket and rail pass resellers which are often announced shortly in advance, and so on.

Remember that there's only two of us, plus the forum moderators. There's a limit to what we can reasonably achieve :-). We'll certainly keep this in mind, but right now we're focusing on other stuff that has priority, such as technical updates, improved site search, and so on.

The vast array of Swiss rail pass and ticket types being offered to tourists is pretty unique I think. Its huge advantage is that there's a good offer for any type of traveler and for any type of trip. The downside is that it takes quite some effort to find out which option is most economical, so it's in evitable for any traveler to do some serious homework, especially if one wants to be sure of the outcome (rather than making an "educated guess").

Hi Annika,

I doubt anyone is seriously expecting you to do this.

The SBB app I would estimate has cost several hundred thousand CHF to get it to the stage it is at.

I doubt there is actually a market for the “tool” being touted so it would be difficult to mount a business case for its development.

In any case, half the fun of planning a Swiss holiday is working out the itinerary and grappling with the travel pass options. MySwissAlps is already the best aid in that process.

ps Is this the thread that never ends?

<<"Its huge advantage is that there's a good offer for any type of traveler and for any type of trip.">>

Right.

And, if someone does not wish to do the work, the cost differentials for those options are not disasters, compared to the total trip costs for a Swiss trip of any significant duration. The examples given in this thread make that clear. In fact, the CHF saved per hour of doing the work may not be worth the time that could be used doing other things...unless one enjoys that kind of work.

Not everyone is as frugal as the Dutch and the Swiss are reputed to be. ;-)

But, if they are, they can have the option to find the best choice.

Slowpoke