[Anonymous]

9 May 2019 at 10:50:23 #821540

Hi!

I’d like to book in advance our train ride from Lucerne to Milan for June 25, 2019. How will I indicate in the booking that we have Swiss Travel Pass? What site will I open to book our travel?

Thanks.

💡 Save time and get daily forum questions & answers by e-mail

[rockoyster]

Reply 1 of 11 • 9 May 2019 at 11:01:37 #911993

Hello Kina and Welcome to MySwissAlps

This should help – http://www.myswissalps.com/tr aintickets/italy.

The STP will cover your travel to the Swiss border at Chiasso.

[Arno]

Reply 2 of 11 • 9 May 2019 at 11:02:21 #911994

Thanks for joining us Kina!

The booking process is explained under “Traveling beyond the area covered by the pass” on this page: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/howtouse.

So, basically you don’t need to indicate you will have a pass. As Rockoyster says, simply buy a ticket from Chiasso (the border) to Milan from any of the websites listed here: http://www.myswissalps.com/tr aintickets/italy/price. Then board that train in Lucerne or wherever you need to change trains, since the Swiss leg of the trip is included in the Swiss Travel Pass.

[User]

Reply 3 of 11 • 15 May 2019 at 5:13:19 #911995

So sorry for this late reply!

Thank you very much to your advice, very much appreciated!

Just let me summarize it? Our STPs will cover our Luzern to Chiasso trip, then, I need to purchase the Chiasso to Milan trip. But we do not need to get off the train in Chiasso and ride on another train to Milan, am I right?

Thanks.

[Arno]

Reply 4 of 11 • 15 May 2019 at 5:20:35 #911996

Hi Kina,

That’s correct. You can (and should for the best price) buy the Chiasso to Milan ticket in advance from any of the websites listed in my second link.

Swiss Travel Pass purchase options are here: http://www.myswissalps.com/sw isstravelpass/price.

[User]

Reply 5 of 11 • 15 May 2019 at 5:28:30 #911997

Thanks a lot!

I am currently looking at the map covered by STP. Based on this map, if we will travel to Colmar France from Basel SBB, our STP will only cover the Basel SBB to Basel St Johann route. With this, we will only purchase tickets from Basel St Johann to Colmar, is that right?

Thanks again.

[Arno]

Reply 6 of 11 • 15 May 2019 at 6:18:53 #911998

Hi Kina,

I don’t think any of those trains actually stop in St. Johann. To be sure I’d simply buy a ticket from Basel SBB to Colmar. There should be little or no price difference.

http://www.myswissalps.com/tr aintickets/france/pric e

[User]

Reply 7 of 11 • 15 May 2019 at 13:52:45 #911999

Alright. I will simply buy tickets from Basel SBB to Colmar. Thanks!

Going back again to the discussion about Lucerne to Milan. I’m trying to book tickets from Chiasso to Milan using the link you shared, but I’m having a difficulty in choosing the ticket with the departure time that coincides with expected arrival times of trains departing from Lucerne going to Chiasso. For example, 12 noon departure of a train from Lucerne is expected to arrive Chiasso around 2:55 pm.However, there are no tickets for a train departing from Chiasso going to Milan that has the same time (2:55 pm). The earliest choice given is a 4:00 pm departure. If I purchase this 4:00 pm ticket, does that mean we would have to get off the train when it reaches Chiasso, and board another train going to Milan?

I have read a thread from TripAdvisor that advises to book the ticket (Lucerne to Milan) from SBB and simply choose the GA reduction in order for the Swiss Travel Pass to be considered. According to the person, the Swiss Travel Pass is an equivalent of a GA. Is this really applicable?

Thank you.

[rockoyster]

Reply 8 of 11 • 15 May 2019 at 21:23:26 #912000

“According to the person, the Swiss Travel Pass is an equivalent of a GA. Is this really applicable?”

For trips to Italy, yes. If you read http://www.myswissalps.com/tr aintickets/italy you will see “An alternative to booking a ticket to the Swiss border station, is to book a ticket for the “passholder fare”. That’s a ticket for the entire route for people who own a rail pass for Switzerland or Italy. The ticket is cheaper than a regular ticket because the leg covered by the rail pass is free. An advantage of this fare is that it includes a seat reservationfor the entire route, not just to the border. Passholder fares are not always available, nor needed (because seat reservations are not required within Switzerland). If they’re unavailable, you simply book to the border;”. That method is where you claim the GA discount for the Swiss leg.

[Arno]

Reply 9 of 11 • 16 May 2019 at 9:00:32 #912001

Hi Kina,

The train you mentioned stops for a few minutes in Chiasso and departs 3:02 PM. Tickets are still available for only € 9.90, e.g. via https://www.trainline. eu/search. It even shows me 1st class tickets for the same amount!

[User]

Reply 10 of 11 • 22 May 2019 at 11:35:19 #912002

Thanks again for your replies.

Arno, we opted to go ahead with your recommendation.

Instead of leaving Lucerne at 12:18, we decided to leave Lucerne earlier, so we are currently looking for the 11:18 am train departure. However, there’s no direct route to Milan for that schedule. The schedule of 11:18 am has a carrier change in Arth Goldau at around 11:51 am. The new train would be at platform 6, while our drop-off point would be at platform 5. We searched for the layout of the platforms and we found out that we need to use stairs to go to platform 6. Is the 14 minutes allowance enough to reach platform 6 considering we have luggage with us? Please give us a clear view on this.

Just one last thing. It’s clear that we already have seat reservations for the trip going from Chiasso to Milano Centrale. But how about the long trip from Luzern to Chiasso. What should be done if we want to ensure that we have seats?

Thank you once again.

[Arno]

Reply 11 of 11 • 22 May 2019 at 13:24:05 #912003

Hi Kina,

14 minutes is plenty of time. All you need to do is take the stairs/ramp down, walk 10 meters, then take the stairs/ramp up. You’ll probably spend 10 of the 14 minutes waiting at platform 6 🙂

You can sit in any available seat, preferably the one you have reserved from Chiasso. If you want to reserve a seat until Chiasso you’ll have to do so separately through the SBB website.