Jan 4, 2014 - 11:48 AM
Hi filltso,
Glad to hear you find our website useful. Thanks! As for your question: "passholder fare" means that you don't pay for the Swiss portion of your trip, since that is covered by your Swiss Pass. Regardless whether you pay for the whole trip or a portion of it, the price of TGV tickets depends on lots of factors: the exact travel date and time, when you purchase (well in advance is mostly cheaper then last minute), where you purchase and whether or not there are special promotions that apply. Also the route may be of influence. In your case you can travel via Basel, Geneva or Vallorbe.
I don't have all this information for your trip, but I just did a search on raileurope-world.com for Lausanne to Paris in March, and I see prices starting at EUR 52 for 2nd class from Vallorbe. And starting at EUR 79.70 1st class from Basel. Note that Rail Europe has many websites. Picking the one for your country or region is usually best. I used their world wide site. They offer competitive prices and regular promotions, but it can pay off to carefully compare options (routes, times) and resellers. As you mentioned, they indeed also offer quite some services like cancellation, coverage in case of loss/theft, travel apps, etc. Whether or not that matters depends on whether you need such services and how flexible you need to be.
What helps too, in general, is purchasing passes and tickets all at once. If shipping costs apply, you'd only pay for that once or not at all if a minimum order value applies. Also there have been promotions offering a discount when the order value reaches a certain minimum.
I hope this answers your question. Enjoy your trip!
Last modified on Sep 18, 2022 - 1:54 PM by Annika
