Which pass for 11 day itinerary in December?

Hi,

I will be in Switzerland for 11 days in Dec. Below is my itinerary. I would like to travel first class on some of the trains. Not sure which pass I should get. Half Fare Card or Swiss Travel Pass? Appreciate advice. Thanks!

Day 1 - Arrive Zurich, travel to Bernese Oberland/Interlaken

Day 2: Day trip to Bern

Day 3: Visit Jungfrajoch then head to Zermatt

Day 4: Zermatt - visit Matterhorn

Day 5: Take Glacier Express from Zermatt to Pontresina

Day 6: Take Bernina Express from Pontresina to Tirano to and fro

Day 7: Explore Pontresina

Day 8: Travel to Lucern

Day 9: Explore Lucern

Day 10: Travel to Zurich

Day 11: Explore Zurich and to the airport

Welcome to MySwissAlps, porkchop!

To start off with: yes, you can buy discounted ticket for 1st class seats with a Swiss Half Fare Card.

As for which pass is best: in terms of convenience I'd recommend you look into the Swiss Travel Pass well. You seem to make making extensive use of trains each day, so the flexibility and ticketless traveling offered by the Swiss Travel Pass would come in very handy. You can choose from either an 8 day variant (e.g. for day 1-8, with regular tickets for day 9-10) or a 15 day variant which will cover your entire itinerary. You could pick the 2nd class version and pay for occasional upgrades to 1st class.

An extensive price comparison can be done using these guidelines.