MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial How to use Regional-Pass Lake Geneva
-
We have recently purchased the above 7 day passes from Happyrail for a holiday based in Montreux. We have received what looks like an invoice from SBB in an email but nothing that looks like a pass. Can you advise how we obtain the passes themselves and how to use them? Can we link them to our SBB app on our phones and use them to purchase the half price tickets on our ‘non free’ days?
ALso, do we have to define all our free days at the start of our holiday or can we just declare each one just before we use it?
Any help would be much appreciated.
-
Hi John22,
Welcome to MySwissAlps! How to use your pass is explained here, under “Selecting your travel days”: http://www.myswissalps.com/regionalpasslakegeneva/howtouse. Basically you don’t receive a pass. You can generate a day ticket each time you need one. Instructions should be included but you can also ask HappyRail in case of any doubts.
There is no need to link anything to an app. Simply buy half fare tickets either online, at the station or through the app. You don’t need to proof that you’re in title to that fare at the time if purchase.
Many thanks for this.
I am still not sure on two points…
1. Do I have to specify all my free days at the start of using the pass or can I decide each day prior to my journey.. Obviously I would like to wait to see the weather conditions before deciding to go on a free day outing.
2. If I buy a half price ticket online using the SBB app there does not seem to be any way to get it to recognise that I have a Regional Pass Lake Geneva, and it will just ask for the full fare.
Apologies if I am missing something obvious.
Regards,
John
Hi John,
1. You can specify each free travel day before you start each journey. Ideally, the prior evening or morning of travelling after checking the weather forecast.
2. The SBB app displays half-price ticket prices by default: see https://www.myswissalps.com/timetable. There is no need to enter a code or a reference number. You simply buy a discounted ticket online. During ticket inspection, all your need to do is present the tickets and your regional pass upon request.
You can find all the information from the link which Arno highlighted in his post.
Let us know if you need more info.
Regards,
Anna
Anna,
Again many thanks for this.
I have clicked on a link on invoice for Geneva Pass and I get the following….
Manage your Flex days
Select your desired days of travel by clicking on the corresponding date. A selected day can be deselected by clicking on it again. Important: Confirm each selection/deselection by clicking on “Activate/deactivate tickets”.
Each travel day must be activated before the start of the journey at the latest. On the day of travel, an activated ticket can no longer be deactivated.
Under “My tickets” you will find your valid ticket for each activated day of travel. Please present it for inspection.
What does Flex days mean? …is this a free day or just any day on the 7 day pass?
I would like to purchase a ticket online from Geneva Airport to holiday destination using not a free day but a half price day. Can you give any guidance how to do this online with this pass? We have already purchased the return ticket for the day after the pass expires using the SBB app and it did not offer us the ticket at half price, so I am concerned it will not offer us a half price ticket unless it knows about the Geneva Pass.
I am really sorry to go on about this … but it is not clear how to use this pass.
Regards,
John
‘Manage your flex days’ essentially means ‘manage all your days’ as the whole pass is a ‘flex’ type pass because none of the days are fixed until you choose to fix your free days.
Hi John,
You don’t need to prove that you have a pass. In the app, simply select half fare for each passenger, and then go ahead and buy tickets. On websites offering half fare tickets you can do this in a similar way. Only once on board the train, the staff will check your ticket and see if you’re actually in title to the discount. So, you need to show them your discounted ticket as well as your pass. If you still have doubts, feel free to attach a copy of all the documents you received from HappyRail, so we can take a look.
Thanks again.
Happyrail has sent nothing other than an invoice with a link to activate the free days. This takes you to a page where you can select your free travel days and this provides tickets for these day.
So far we have seen no Geneva Regional Pass …so we have nothing to show along with our half priced ticket to the onboard staff. We have nothing that can go on our phone to say we have a pass.
What is the online pass …is it a web page …is it an attachment to an email???
Again apologies but this is not clear.
Regards,
John
Hi John,
Passes are either a PDF that you can keep on any device (usually your phone), or all you’ll receive is a code so you can get your day tickets online (that’s what applies here, and you can keep them on your phone as well). I’m not sure either what to show to train personnel on your “discount days”. Perhaps the invoice is sufficient but I’m not sure as I haven’t seen it. I recommend to ask HappyRail what to show on those days.
Many thanks to all for your responses.
What I thought was a simple task is proving to be difficult. I will return to Happyrail ….but to be honest I am less than happy with Happyrail’s efforts todate. Your team have answered many of the questions regarding the pass …but as yet the actual pass remains illusive.
Would it have been asking too much for Happyrail to have issue some form of guide with this pass to allow customers to use it efficiently.
Kind regards,
John
I understand John. Please let us know what they say. If they don’t reply within the next 24 hours, please feel free to share your order reference number here so I can contact them on your behalf as well. Also you’re still welcome to attach a scan of your documents here, or e-mail it to us, so we can have a look. It may not make any difference at all, but if I can help I will try.
One reason why I am pro SBB / Swiss tourist office /the railway line operator, and sceptical of ‘resellers’ for obtaining Swiss passes.
Arno,
Many thanks for offerring to help with this.
I still have not had any answer from Happyrail regarding the use of this pass on half price days and nothing that looks like a pass.
I could send you details of our purchase but worry about placing this material on the forum. If you can email me directly I would return this information.
We purchased three 7 day passes from Happyrail due to start on the 24th of this month in the names of Lyn, John and Ann Ferguson.
Happyrail have replied to some of our emails but not to the issues raised in our questions …especially regarding what can be used as evidence of holding this pass.
Regards,
John
Hi John,
I am very sorry to hear that you haven’t received any answer yet from Happyrail.
I would like to ask you to send us an email with your details via http://www.myswissalps.com/contact/email. You can also attach a document if you wish. Arno or Annika will receive it and answer as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Ildiko
I used this pass last October. I too was confused about it.
The 3 free days were straightforward. Login to activatemypass, choose your free days and download the tickets.
I also asked, where is my pass ? But there isn’t one. Only the invoice they sent. Nobody could answer my question. But when I went to Glacier 3000 it was accepted as my “pass” to get the discount without quibble.
On the half fare days, I just booked my tickets on the SBB app at half fare, and carried the invoice with me. Nobody ever looked at it, but I was only using local buses and trains.
Hope that helps
Many thanks for your input …I thought it was just me that was being rather slow.
Interestingly the invoice from SBB days at the foot…
During your 4-day discount, you must take your RegionalPass with you to be eligible!
…and it would appear that such an object does not exist.
John
Hi John,
I received the copy of your invoice, thank you. It shows the pass name, travel dates, traveler names and birth dates. That’s basically what any other pass would show as well, with the exception of the QR code which you don’t have. It says “Not valid for travel”, but that’s probably just to prevent people from boarding a train with just that printout: you need a day ticket or a half fare ticket to go with it.
I suppose it’s fine to use this, and I think HappyRail will confirm that. You can always ask the staff at any train station ticket office before you board your first train. I fully agree with you that this pass is not very clear about what to do on the “discounted travel days”.
Please let us know how it goes or if you have any other questions.
Again, thanks for all your efforts with this.
Maybe I am just a pessimist but I have vision of us struggling in broken French with either a train ticket inspector, the ticket office on the boat for Lac Leman, a bus driver or even cable car ticket sales….pleading with them to accept or even issue us half price tickets based on a piece of paper that clearly says ….
During your 4-day discount, you must take your RegionalPass with you to be eligible!
Regards,
John
Hi John,
How did things go with your pass?
Arno,
All went well with pass offering us great value during our 7 day stay.
We were never challenged by ticket inspectors during our half price travel days, so never had to produce any evidence of holding the pass.
Again, many thanks for all your help and I hope more travellers take advantage of this good value pass.
Regards,
Joyn
Hi Joyn,
Thanks for getting back to us! Happy to hear you liked the Regional-Pass Lake Geneva-Alps, and that you didn’t encounter any problems when showing tickets on your discounted days. I’m pretty sure that showing your digital invoice would have been sufficient, if asked for.
I hope you enjoyed your stay in Switzerland! If you want to, you can share some of your experiences here: https://www.myswissalps.com/forum/tripreports.
- The thread ‘How to use Regional-Pass Lake Geneva’ is closed to new replies.
