Bernina Express Open Air Wagons

My wife and I will be headed from Zurich to Milan in mid July (the 18th or 19th). Our first thought was to take the Bernina Express, but the idea of riding through that beautiful area in an open wagon is especially appealing.

Is there a way to find out if/when there will be open air wagons during that time? I came across this thread from last year which had a link, but I couldn't make sense of the site that was linked.

Is it still too far out to find that out? Do the open air cars usually fill up or will we be alright if we can find one on that day?

Hi Vcize,

Current information can be found here, although I don't think there's a schedule yet. They're pretty popular, so you best book in advance as you're traveling in high season. It might even be compulsory to book in advance, I'm not sure. You can best keep an eye on that page or contact the RhB directly to find out about the details.

we too would be traveling on the same route from chur to Tirano , and from Tirano to Venice, can any one suggest when earliest to book? and from which web-site? will swiss- pass cover the journey ?.. our dates are 28 aug 2013

thank you

Arno said: Hi Vcize,
Current information can be found here, although I don't think there's a schedule yet. They're pretty popular, so you best book in advance as you're traveling in high season. It might even be compulsory to book in advance, I'm not sure. You can best keep an eye on that page or contact the RhB directly to find out about the details.

Thanks for the link!

From that, it looks like the open air carriages are only available for the St Moritz->Tirano leg and not from Chur->St Moritz. That's a bummer, as we wanted to stop off in St Moritz so we were planning to take a regular train (open air preferred) from Chur to St Moritz and then the actual BE from St Moritz to Tirano. The goal being to do half the trip with the panaroma windows and half with the open air carriage, with a 2 night stop in between.

Hi hemvarsha,

You can book 2 to 3 months in advance. St. Moritz to Tirano is covered for free with a Swiss Pass. You don't need to book seats for that leg, unless you want to travel with the Bernina Express or the open air carriages. This page explains about reservations and also has links to the sites selling them. In most cases you can purchase the reservations from the same site as the Swiss Pass. If you let me know where you're from I can be more specific.

hemvarsha said: we too would be traveling on the same route from chur to Tirano , and from Tirano to Venice, can any one suggest when earliest to book? and from which web-site? will swiss- pass cover the journey ?.. our dates are 28 aug 2013
thank you