MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial Purchase of Saver Day Pass via HappyRail
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Hi All,
Long post ahead. Not sure if anybody experienced the same issue as me. I would like to seek some clarification with regards to purchasing saver day pass via Happyrail.
As advised by MySwissAlps on my previous thread, I can purchase Saver Day Pass sooner than the regular 60 day booking window via Happyrail. Which I have done so. (Purchased Saver Day Pass for 28 Jan 2020 on Happyrail website on 27 Oct 2019 for 2 adults at CHF 79 each, indicating with Swiss Half Fare Card)
My understanding was that Happyrail will book the pass when it becomes available at the best price and immediately send the passes by e-mail and refund the difference if a difference is applicable.
I have received the email from Happyrail for the passes, however I’m charged CHF 52 per adult and the ticket indicates Full Fare.
I emailed Happyrail to enquire about this and their reply was “There are two versions of the Saver Day Pass. A reduced one for Swiss Half Fare Card holders and a regular “full price” Saver Day Pass. These tickets vary in price independent on each other. So in this case the regular “full price” Saver Day Pass was priced the same as, or cheaper than, the reduced version”.
After I received Happyrail email, I went to check SBB and Happyrail website and noticed the cost of the Saver Day Pass for 28 Jan 2020 was CHF 39 and CHF 38 per adult with HFC respectively. I screenshot the fare to Happyrail and they revert the following “The regular Swiss Saver Day pass was the cheapest available option at the moment of booking your tickets. We can not influence any price fluctuations of SBB.”
I am disappointed and confused. When I checked both SBB and Happyrail, the cost of the pass is cheaper than what I’m currently charged (Happyrail charged me CHF 52 per adult for Full Fare even though I indicated I have HFC). This does not make sense to me for making a pre booking yet having to pay more. And I can’t comprehend why would a full fare pass be cheaper than a pass with HFC?? I have not seen full fare tickets cheaper than with a HFC throughout my research for my trip. Doesn’t the system work in the way where it begins with the lowest fare and prices starts increasing day after day?
“The regular Swiss Saver Day pass was the cheapest available option at the moment of booking your tickets. We can not influence any price fluctuations of SBB.” – How would I be able to verify this? Immediately after receiving the email from Happyrail, I went to check both website and prices are cheaper than what I’m charged.
Is my understanding of the booking system incorrect or is there some kind of miscommunication here?
Appreciate any kind of help
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Hi Micheleang17! Thanks for letting us know, and thanks for adding your screenshots. I understand this is confusing.
Saver Day Pass prices do vary (http://www.myswissalps.com/saverdaypass/price), both full fares as well as Swiss Half Fare Card fares, and retailers can’t influence this. The SBB don’t provide guarantees for “best buy” moments for any travel date, nor any other price guarantees. Our information about the pre-booking service states: “You’re guaranteed of the best price as the tickets will be issued as soon as they become available. The price difference will be refunded, or you will be contacted in case the tickets are more expensive than what you paid.” HappyRail at https://www.happyrail.com/en/pass/europe/switzerland/swiss-saver-day-pass explains: “We book the pass for you when it becomes available at the best price. We will then immediately send you the passes by e-mail and we will refund the difference if a difference is applicable.”
So it’s correct that you’ll be charged with best the price that happens to be available at the moment Saver Day Passes for your travel date are issued, provided they’re not more expensive than your initial pre-purchase rate of course. However, I too would expect prices to gradually go up as the travel date approaches, rather than fluctuate to this degree. And I’d also expect Swiss Half Fare Card fares to be lower than full fares, although I think I’ve seen some rare instances in which it was the other way around.
I’ve contacted HappyRail and asked them to look into this. I’ll get back to you in this thread once I know more.
Meanwhile, just for my information:
- are you sure you selected the Swiss Half Fare Card rate when ordering your Saver Day Passes? Do you have an order confirmation showing this?
- you mention you pre-ordered your passes for CHF 79 each, and are now charged CHF 52 each. So am I correct that you’ll still receive a refund for the difference? I’m not sure, as you state “This does not make sense to me for making a pre booking yet having to pay more.”
Thanks for letting me know!
Thank you Annika for your help.
I have attached screenshot of order confirmation for your reference.
Yes, Happyrail said there would be a refund of CHF 54 to my credit card.
“And I’d also expect Swiss Half Fare Card fares to be lower than full fares, although I think I’ve seen some rare instances in which it was the other way around.” – If there is no miscommunication and really as per what you said “rare instances”, I Guess I’m that “lucky” to be the rare instances 🙁
Nevertheless, Happyrail website mentioned “Best Price Guarantee – If you find it cheaper, we pay the difference”. In my case, will they pay the difference since SBB website is cheaper and so is their website. Confusing… so confusing 😅
Thanks again for your help!
Attachments:
Hi Micheleang17! Yes, your screenshot clearly shows the Swiss Half Fare Card rate, so a misunderstanding about that can’t have caused this issue. I’m afraid HappyRail’s best price guarantee only applies for prices available on a specific date, especially for Saver Day Passes as those rates vary each day. Let’s wait and see what they reply. I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve heard from them!
Thank you Annika. As you suggested, let’s wait and see what Happyrail reply.
Just to ask:-
“I’m afraid HappyRail’s best price guarantee only applies for prices available on a specific date, especially for Saver Day Passes as those rates vary each day.” – May I ask when you mentioned specific date, what does that mean? What constitutes a specific date?
I am unable to make sense of the price fluctuation within the short period of time. Based on Happyrail website ”we book the pass for you when it becomes available at the best price. We will then immediately send you the pass by email…”, my understanding of this sentence was that once passes are available for booking, at the first instance, the very minute it’s released, Happyrail will make the booking for its customer. And once they have done that, they will send it to customer the next second (to quote an example of what I thought the process would be – Happyrail purchase passes for customer at 1pm and send it over to customer via email at 1.01pm). I supposed when they mentioned in their website “immediately”, the meaning should be this.
Happyrail sent me the passes via email at 12.32am, 5th Dec and I replied at 1.03am, 5th Dec with screenshots of prices on SBB website and their website. Within this short time frame, the prices of passes changed? Unless my understanding is incorrect, I really cannot make sense of the price I’m charged.
Hi Micheleang17!
HappyRail informed me that they’re working on it, and I’ll get back to you once I know more. I’m afraid I can’t tell what exactly “immediately” means in this context, and we’ll have to wait for their explanation.
What I tried to explain when mentioning “specific date”, is that I meant that Saver Day Pass prices can vary and fluctuate. So HappyRail (or any other retailer, for that matter) can’t provide an “overall” best price guarantee for a Saver Day Pass, as they’d have to keep track of the varying prices for a longer period in that case, without knowing what the future price development would be and without being sure when the lowest price would occur. So all they can promise is that they’ll refund a difference (if applicable) once the Saver Day Pass for your travel date becomes available. I guess they use the prices that apply at the day the passes become available, but again, I can’t exactly tell how they interpret “immediately”. I asked them to look into this specific question of yours as well.
Hello Micheleang17,
I just heard that your case has been solved. I’m hoping to find out more details about what happened, which I will share here.
Thank you Arno. Looking forward to hear from you. PS: Hoping for the best 😬
Hi Micheleang17,
It appears that the price indeed went further down after the Saver Day Pass first became available. That’s different from how it used to work. Prices used to start low and only went up or stayed low. The price you paid was the official price that was automatically communicated from SBB to Happyrail. Happyrail will contact SBB to sort out what happened (new policy or a fault). As I understand it you got refunded the difference.
Thank you Arno. Yes, I’ve been refunded the difference.
So after SBB gets back to Happyrail and if it’s a fault, I would get the remaining difference refunded? Initially I paid CHF 79 for 1 pass. I was charged CHF 52 for 1 pass. Based on my check on pass price as per above correspondence, its CHF 39 on SBB or CHF 38 on Happyrail. So if it’s a fault, can I get back CHF 52 – CHF 38 = CHF 14 per pass?
The CHF 52 that I was charged was based on full fare whereas I had selected half fare. As of today, the full fare pass still remains as CHF 52 and the half fare is CHF 38.. It’s difficult for me to understand why a full fare pass is cheaper than a half fare pass as well. (This was what I was told by Happyrail and Annika)
I understand that this is in no way any fault of MySwissAlps team, but I really really cannot make sense of this whole issue – especially when I checked the prices within 30mins upon receiving the email from Happyrail.
Should I email SBB and check or wait for your updates?
Much appreciated
Hi Micheleang17,
I would think that in case of a fault you’ll get that difference back too, but that’s up to SBB and Happyrail. Please keep in touch with Happyrail about that (not SBB as you didn’t purchase there).
I agree, it does’t make sense for half fare prices to be more expensive, or for prices to go up and down like we saw in this case. Perhaps it is all intended; that may mean that SBB recently switched to an even more complex “prices on demand” model: e.g. if demand for half fare prices is high, that price goes up. Theoretically they can do so as Saver Day Passes are promotional products and availability nor a particular price isn’t guaranteed, but it would make it quite tricky. I don’t know though, I hope to find out.
“I understand that this is in no way any fault of MySwissAlps team, but I really really cannot make sense of this whole issue – especially when I checked the prices within 30mins upon receiving the email from Happyrail.”
I’m with you. Loving your tenacity. 🤓
Thank you Arno. I’ll get back to Happyrail again in this case. Hopefully there’s a favourable answer. If you do get any updates from them, appreciate if you can let me know too =)
Rockoyster -🤞What else can I do right.. haha.. Guess nobody expected this. If I see this coming, I doubt I would make my heart go through it and would have just wait for SBB to release the ticket. But oh well, what’s done is done. Just hoping it is some fault somewhere and at the end of the day, I get the difference back. CHF 28 can get me a meal or at least some chocolates for my child!😅😅
Hi Arno,
Happyrail has refunded me the remaining difference but did not mention anything more on this.
Though I’m curious what actually happened, nevertheless all is good now.
They however did not resend me a new pass, so can I safely assume that the previous saver day pass sent can be used?
Many thanks once again!
Hi Micheleang17,
It may take a while before they sort this out with SBB, so I wouldn’t expect more details from Happyrail any time soon. Just keep in touch with them I’d say; ask them again in January perhaps if you haven’t heard back by then.
Your pass is fine, this is just about the price. You got the pass for the right price – at that point in time. Even if they would have sold it to you for CHF 20 more or less it would still be a valid pass, so no worries 🙂
Thanks again Arno for all the help!
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