Received my Swiss Flexi Pass - validation question

Hi,

We purchased our Swiss Flexi 4 day Pass from your link to Switzerland Travel Center. Thank you for making it so easy - they shipped out our passes 3 weeks before our departure (as requested when we put in our comments during the booking).

The Pass simply asks for Name, Country, Passport. Then there are 4 columns to write in the date of each travel. When we purchase it online, we already gave 18th September as our date.

There is an additional piece called the "control Voucher". This voucher plus the pass must be presented together.

From what I see from your website page - these Swiss Flexi Passes purchased from Switzerland Travel Center, dont need to be validated at the Train Station when we arrive in Zurich. Am I correct?

The pamphlet that came with the Passes indicates "Please sign your ticket before beginning your journey and present it to the conductor together with your passport".

If you have an "open date" ticket, please have it validated at a station ticket office before beginning your journey.

When we purchased the pass, we indicated 18 Sept as the first trip. This date was acknowledged in the accompanying letter when the passes arrived. However, on the pass itself - it does not reflect the date.

Do we just fill in the first day of departure and get on the train since these passes are purchased from Switzerland Travel Centre?

Hi traveljet,

I'm glad to hear that ordering the passes worked out fine for you. What you normally receive is two tickets stapled together:

1) the pass itself that indeed needs the traveler name, country and passport number to be written down on it. It also has space to fill out the free travel days, which must be done before boarding the first train of the day. It normally also has a timeframe of one month printed on it, during which the free travel days must be used. I would expect that timeframe to be 18.09.12 - 17.10.12 in your case.
2) an additional piece that needs the names and passport numbers of the remaining travelers to be filled out.

If that's all filled out, you don't need to visit any railway official for validation. If you're not sure, just ask the train conductor or someone at the ticket desk, they'll be able to check it for you. You're also welcome to scan you ticket and post it here if you want us to take a look at it.

Hello arno,

Thanks for your prompt response. Everything is as you mentioned. We will just put in the first date of travel and our particulars eg name etc beforehand and before boarding the train.

With the 50% off on the non travel days in Bernese Oberland (we are there 2 weeks) and 25% off Jungfrau (we are staying in Beaternberg and Wengen), i assume we dont need the 2 for 1 Bernese Oberland regional pass. But that means we have to buy point to point tickets for each trip. We intend to take the many cable cars, funicular, cogwheels in murren, grindelwald, lauterbrunnen etc.

By the way, do you have any idea if the Interlaken Visitors card covers free transport from Interlaken West to Brienz? How about Interlaken Ost to Wengen? We wont be using our free Swiss Flexi pass travel day for those trips. We can use the 50% discount because of the Flexi Pass. But curious to know if the Interlaken Visitors Card covers that.

Hi traveljet,

I wouldn't think that a second pass is worth the money either. There's a link to the details of the Visitors Card on the Interlaken page.

Ok. Thank you Arno. Have a great weekend!