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I purchased a 15 day Swiss Travel Pass from HappyRail and want to reserve seats. They sent me the below links to reserve seats:
- http://www.happyrail.com/en/p ass/europe/switzerland /passholder-fares-golden-pass
- http://www.happyrail.com/en/p ass/europe/switzerland /passholder-fares-glacier-express
- http://www.happyrail.com/en/p ass/europe/switzerland /passholder-fares-bernina-express
- http://www.happyrail.com/en/p ass/europe/switzerland /passholder-fares-gotthard-panorama-express
However these links seem to be to book tickets. It says 100% discount but requires me to pay CHF55 for Glacier Express. Is that for the ticket or seat? It doesnt ask me for the Swiss Pass Number or ask me to choose seats
Is there additional cost to reserve seats if I have a Swiss Travel Pass?
Can you please send me the links to reserve seats and let me know if there are additional fees to reserve seats?
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Hi Nita,
Reservations on trains in Switzerland are always in addition to the cost of your ticket or pass.
You can make reservations and choose your seats here:
Glacier Express
shop.glacierexpress.ch /gex_en
There will be a drop down box during the booking process, where you can indicate that you have a Swiss Travel Pass. As you are travelling in August, a reservation on the Glacier Express will cost CHF 43.00 for a long journey, or CHF 33 for a short journey.
Golden Pass
(Change the language to English at the top right of the page if need be)
Reservations for the sector between Zweisimmen and Montreux cost CHF 8 (or CHF 15 for the VIP seats in first class).
Bernina Express
http://www.rhb.ch/en/tickets-travelcards/bernina-express-booking/bernina-express
There will be a drop down box during the booking process, where you can indicate that you have a Swiss Travel Pass.
If you are also booking the Bernina Express bus, for best results do separate searches/reservations for the bus and train.
Reservations cost CHF 14 per seat per sector.
Gotthard Panorama Express
http://www.sbb.ch/ticketshop/ b2c/adw.do?1993
Change the language to English at the top of the page if necessary.
You can’t book the boat, just the train between Lugano and Flüelen (or vice versa).
To reserve the correct train, choose the train from Flüelen to Lugano, departing Flüelen at 14:10, direct to Lugano, and denoted by the letters EXT.
Or in the other direction, book the train from Lugano to Flüelen, departing Lugano at 9:23, likewise direct to Flüelen, and denoted by the letters EXT.
If you can’t type the ü in Flüelen, spell it Flueelen instead.
Reservations cost CHF 24 for the whole trip. The Gotthard Panorama Express does not run on Mondays.
Alpenrose
Hi Nita,
As Alpenrose stated, reservations for seats are extra (and mandatory for panoramic trains except Golden Pass, but you should make them on that as well).
The links you have (and what Alpenrose stated) are fine.
Thanks much Alpenrose666 for the detailed instructions to book seats. I was able to book the Bernina Express and Glacier Express. However for some reason the Golden Pass and Gotthard are not going through.
On the Golden Pass website I get the error “unexpected error!
Unknown Error at CompletePayment! Payment has been cancelled! VERIFIED ERROR: ModuleException:MessageObject:exchangeData: IO error:recv failed An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.”
So I have still not been able to reserve seats on Gotthard Panoramic and Golden Pass.
>> However for some reason the Golden Pass and Gotthard are not going through.
Computer glitches happen from time to time. I’m sure they will fix it. Just try again tomorrow.
Are you also getting that error message on the SBB reservations site? Or is that a different problem? Sometimes foreign credit cards are rejected on the SBB site. I would try a few more times, and if you don’t have any success, try Happy Rail.
Alpenrose
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