Help: day trip Lucerne to Genena via Jungfraujoch

Hi,

My first time here. I need some advices to plan our trip. We are family of four (three adult age, one child) are
arriving Lucerne at noon in July. And plan to make a one-day trip the next day starting early morning.
The route is: Lucerne - Interlaken - Jungfraujoch-interlaken-Geneva. It is a very agressive plan but those are the only
time we have. How do I optimize my ticket purchasing?
I plan to buy swiss half fare card along with the one day travel pass for three of our adult age (the younger one (11) should be free). The three person half fare card is $330, then each person pay 68 CHF for the day pass. When I search the price on SBB, is shows 85 CHF for this day trip, I believe it is because the day pass can't cover part of the mountain train. So our
day trip cost is: 330 + 3 x 85 = 585 CHF. My questions are:

1. Is it the best deal I can get for our family?
2. Once we buy the day pass, can we hop on and off the train any time during that day without reserving the seats?
3. Can I buy the half fare card at the Lucerne station (is it a larger station?).
4. Is there any advanced purchase method to save money? If not, I may just buy when we arrive. Will the tickets be sold out? We have to arrive Geneva on the same day.

Thanks for any help and advice.

MamaBear

Hello MamaBear, and welcome! The Swiss Half Fare Card indeed seems to be a good choice. However, you seem not to have included the purchase costs for the day card in your calculations, so the right calculations for the 3 adults should look like this:

• 330 + (3*68 = 204: the purchase costs for the add-on day card) + (3*78,50 = 235,50: the 50% discounted return trip between Wengen and the Jungfraujoch, which indeed is not for free with your add-on day card). That's a total of CHF 769,50

The additional add-on day card isn't quite worth its money as it doesn't cover the trip up to the Jungfraujoch. A slightly cheaper alternative would be not to buy the add-on day card and just buy 50% reduced tickets for your trips. That would cost:

• 330 + (3*83,50 = 250,50: for the entire 50% discounted journey from Lucerne to Geneva, except for the leg Kleine Scheidegg-Jungfraujoch-Kleine Scheidegg) + (3*58 = 174 for the 50% discounted leg Kleine Scheidegg-Jungfraujoch-Kleine Scheidegg). That's a total of CHF 754,50.

Although the costs will be higher than you estimated, you'll still save money compared to buying regular tickets and not using the Swiss Half Fare Card at all, as that would cost about CHF 879 in total.

Purchase options for the Swiss Half Fare Card are listed at the Swiss Half Fare Card page. Just fill out your country of residence in the upper right corner for specifics. It's available at the Lucerne railway station.

Thanks Annika,
It sounds Swiss Rail system, the cards are very complicated in terms of calculation. If there is no point to buy in advance to get any discounts,
we will just buy at Lucerne station. I believe the tickets will allow us to board on different trains. For example, we may want to
stop at Interlaken to deposit our luggeages before go up to the Junfraujoch. and collect them when we come down. Are there luggage
lockers at Interlaken station? Thanks again for your time.

mamabear

Hi mamabear. If you have your 50% discounted tickets, you can indeed get on and off board at each station along the route (provided that you complete your trip within one day). Yes, luggage lockers are available.

Hi Annika,
I have one more question:
To calculate the one day train fare, when it is add on day card, The mountain train cost 78 CHF extra. but when it is half ticket discount, you calculate mountain train as 58 CHF extra. why is that?
I am surprised that the day card is not as useful as I thought.

Thanks again,

Sharon

Hello mamabear. That's because the add-on day card takes you up to Wengen or Grindelwald for free. From there on, a 50% discount applies and that's the CHF 78. The fare in my 2nd calculation with the Swiss Half Fare Card is composed differently, because the timetable I used calculated fares up to Kleine Scheidegg. This is closer to the Jungfraujoch than Wengen and Grindelwald, so the remaining leg Kleine Scheidegg-Jungfraujoch costs less than Wengen/Grindelwald-Jungfraujoch. You can check it all at the Jungfraujoch website if you like.