Rail pass validation

First, thank you for all your help with purchasing Swiss Rail passes, we bought them from Swissrailways.com. I do have one slight issue that I'm wondering if you can help with, I tried searching their site but couldn't find any contact information. We ordered 20 passes all for the same validity period(saver and youth), but we forgot to order several of the passes for a different validity date then the rest. Is it possible to change the validity date on several passes to start on a different date? We would need them to start the day before. The passes are marked as starting on 2.8.2014, but was wondering if someone at the rail station could manually change them.

Secondly, I'm wondering if our group of 20 would need seat reservations for our trip from Engelberg to Gruyeres/ Broc and back? If we should get reservations, do you have to purchase one for each leg of the trip or does one cover the entire trip from Engelberg to Broc?

We know it will be a long day, so we don't want to take a chance on not being able to make a connection.

One last question......for now anyway......... How do you handle traveling between Switzerland and Germany with a Swiss Pass? We will begin our first day of validation traveling from Triberg, Germany to Zurich, do we just purchase a ticket from Triberg to the border?

Thank you.

Hello mikefrank,

Their contact information should be in the confirmation e-mail you received after ordering. Also you can find it here on our website. Start dates of passes cannot be changed at the rail station. I recommend to contact them and ask to change the start dates of, for example, 2 of the Saver passes , to August 1 and leave the rest at August 2. I assume you ordered on Saturday so your order has not been processed yet. They usually only ship the passes a few weeks before you need them anyway, so there's plenty of time.

We normally recommend to not book seats unless it is required for the specific train (only a few panoramic trains) or if traveling in a group and you want to be sure to sit together. There are also trains that can't be booked in advance, so in such a case the choice is easy. Details can be found here and for each specific train in the timetable. Seats are always booked per train, so you need a different reservation if you switch trains along the way.

Indeed, you need a ticket to the border. Your Swiss Pass will cover the rest of the trip. Which station is the border station depends on your route. The map you can download from the Swiss Pass page shows it in detail. In your case it's probably Basel Bad Bf or Schaffhausen.