Senior GA card 1st class

Rosemary88

It is listed $440/month for senior 1st class GA card. As soon as I went to purchase, it switched to adult and will add $250 for 1st class as the adult price. Is there a glitch in the program? Please advise how to get the senior price ticket.

RolandP

Hello Rosemary88

I think your confusion comes from the fact that you mix up different products.
Are you sure you want to purchase the GA travel card? Prices given are in CHF and not in US$, that makes a difference!

The 1-month GA-Travelcard can be found here, the 1st class costs CHF 695, not CHF 400.

https://www.sbb.ch/en/tickets-offers/travelcards/ga-travelcard/ga-1-month.html

If you are looking into tourist travel passes, see the Swiss Travel Pass:
https://www.swissrailways.com/en/buy-swiss-travel-pass

Please let us know if we can assist you any further.

Kind regards,
Roland

Rosemary88

I have more questions and need further assistance for my trip.
Thanks to your explanation. I purchased the Swiss travel card valid for three days. I have a reservation on Glacier Express How do I buy the ticket for that Glacier Express train?

Could you please advise which train schedule is best from Basel to St. Moritz on Saturdays? I need assistance between connections due to my poor hearing and walking at a relatively slower pace at my age.
How do I know which train has a dining car that I can make reservations for?
Is the Glacier express train station the same as the regular train in St. Moritz and Zermatt?
Thanks for your help

RolandP

Hello Rosemary88

Holding the Swiss Travel Pass, this is your ticket for three days. No additional ticket is needed if you plan to take the Glacier Express during these three days.

The seat reservation can be made here:
https://shop.glacierexpress.ch/gex_en/specials/daytrips/glacier-express/?___from_store=gex_de

Please note, the Glacier Express is operated by the Rhaetian Railways, a partner rail company from SBB. If you have any questions concerning the Glacier Express, you may contact them by e-mail. I know from personal experience, their staff is very helpful (and the food on board the Glacier Express dining car is great, too!):

railservice@rhb.ch

The information about the dining car can be obtained from the timetable. You will find the fork & knife icon, which tells you that the train has a dining car. As a general saying, only Intercity trains (IC) and certain PE trains, such as the Glacier Express, do have a dining car.

Swiss public transport companies do offer complimentary travel assistance for people with disabilities. You may want to register yourself for the trip using the form made for this purpose:

https://service.swisspass.ch/handicap?lang=en

Also see this website: https://www.sbb.ch/en/travel-information/individual-needs/travelling-reduced-mobility/contact-center-handicap.html; the international phone number is also mentioned.

The Glacier Express uses the same tracks as the regular trains; thus, yes, it uses the official train stations.

This is a suitable itinerary:
If you want more connection time in Zurich, you could take the IR37 from Basel at 10:43, to arrive in Zurich at 11:52.

Let us know if you have got further queries.

Best wishes,
Roland

Rosemary88

Hello Roland,
Thanks for your suggestion of the scheduled trip. However, it only allow me to make reservation for the first leg. Also, I cannot find way to reserve the dining car. Between Zurich and Chur and the rest of the trip. I have spent so much time trying to make the reservation in order make sure that I will be on that scheduled train. I have the Swiss travel card, I understand that I do not need to buy ticket. But, I want to ride on the scheduled time that I choose. I do not want to go the station and being told that there is no more seat. Please explain how this Swiss travel card works. I am getting more confused since I cannot find my way online and mobile app to get what I like. Thanks

RedBaron

Rosemary88 Oh dear, where to start?
Maybe with the following Blog article

Assuming you would really reserve a regular seat in the Zurich - Chur IC train, you would pretty likely encounter the slightly embarrassing situation that someone else is already sitting on your reserved seat!
Why you ask? No, definitely not out of spite or rudeness, but simply because 99,9% of your fellow passengers won’t have a seat reservation and therefore also won’t ever consider the remote possibility that someone else might actually have one! Because of that, the vast majority of locals would simply never check whether a train seat is reserved or not before sitting down.
Let alone checking the coach numbers when boarding.
Let alone being aware that coaches may be numbered at all on some trains (only for the sake of seat reservations)!

As for reservations in the dining car, see here.
(IMHO that process is so awkward regarding collecting that reservation confirmation, that probably nobody is using it in real life neither)

Finally a train station here is not an airport. The main station in my hometown has twice as many passengers per day in average than Zurich Airport (in 2022), but ZERO “ground staff” supposed to interact with boarding passengers (= staff who could tell you a train is full… based on what information please, if virtually nobody is reserving a seat?)
And trains will hardly ever be “full” (100% of seats taken) anyway, especially if checking the expected occupancy rates as described in the blog article above.