Swiss Travel Pass vs. Austria/Swiss Pass

The price for the Austria/Swiss pass, 2nd class is $484 for 4 travel days in 2 months. The price for the Swiss Travel Pass is $634 for 4 travel days in 1 month. We will be in Switzerland for 9 days, so the 8 day option doesn't work. We will not be going to Austria. My question is: does the Austria/Swiss Pass also include free local transportation like the Swiss Travel Pass does? Does it include the 50% discount on the mountain gondolas? We are not interested in the other discounts offered with the Swiss Pass, like museum entry.

Also, if you use the pass to ride a short journey, such as Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, does that count as one of the days? I would assume yes.

Hi chein,

The Eurail Austria-Switzerland Pass offers less than the Swiss Travel Pass: no urban transport, no buses, and only discounts on a selection of cable cars. Please see the pages below to find out what is included in both passes:

• myswissalps.com/eurailaustriaswitzerlandpass/validity
• myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass/validity

What are your travel plans for the first and last day? In many cases an 8-day pass still fits a 9-day itinerary if traveling is limited on those days.

The Swiss Travel Pass is for traveling on 3, 4, 8 or 15 consecutive days. It does not matter whether you travel a bit, a lot or not at all on any of the days. The Swiss Travel Pass Flex is the same thing but you can use the travel days as you like within one month. Once you entered the date of a travel day on the pass, it does not matter how much you travel either. Of course you can choose not to use a travel day and just buy a ticket.

Hi chein,

If you fill out the date of that particular day on your pass, you will get the discount. Otherwise not. It is explained on the Swiss Travel Pass Flex page.

I read the whole page, but it still is not clear. I don't want to use the discount for the Matterhorn as a travel day, or I would have to buy a pass with more days which would not make sense. My question is, do I receive the discount whether or not that day is entered on the pass, as long as it is within the 1 month period? Your response makes me believe that I need to enter a travel day to get the discount, but the site doesn't really make that clear.

Thanks for your help!

Hi chein,

You got it right: to get the discount, you need to enter a travel day on the pass. If you don't write a date on it, it is not a travel day, and you don't get any discounts. To get around this limitation, you'd need the Swiss Travel Pass Flex Combi. It's the same pass with one extra benefit: the "Combi" part means that you will get the same discounts as offered by the Swiss Half Fare Card on all days in between the first and last free travel day. I believe that's what you're looking for, right? The Combi pass is explained on the same page.

I hope it's clear now!

Hi chein,

I'm glad to hear your questions have been answered! Was it our page that was not clear to you? It says "If you want to travel on any of the days in between the free travel days, you will have to purchase a regular ticket. There are no discounts on such days". Would you expect a different explanation? Your feedback is appreciated, we want to be as clear as possible!