Hazel1
Alright - today’s price for a 2nd class full fare Saver Day Pass on Fri 16. August is CHF 52.00. This is actually almost a no-brainer price! (e.g. buying a SDP today for next week would range between 79.00 and 97.00)
The cheapest possible alternative to that SDP would cost 47.40 in total and would consist of:
- a ZVV 9 o’clock day pass (27.00, all zones, valid after 9am for the entire day) which covers the entire ZVV / Canton of Zurich fare network area
- a regular Thalwil-Lucerne point-to-point ticket (20.40) as “extension” of that ZVV 9:00 day pass till Lucerne (also valid all day)
Due to that currently still very advantageous SDP price, you wouldn’t save a lot of money in your particular case. Also that combination of two tickets has the following two restrictions:
1.) You may not cross the Rhine river by train (= not leaving the ZVV fare network area bordered by the Rhine). That means using the “Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall” (Castle) station, NOT Neuhausen, and getting there from ZRH Airport only via Winterthur = those connections between ZRH airport and Schloss Laufen listed with the cheaper “from 8.90” price. (Those more expensive connections are routed via Schaffhausen, which is located across the Rhine = outside of the ZVV area)
2.) To be eligible for the Thalwil-Lucerne “extension” ticket, you must use a train between Zurich HB and Lucerne which actually does stop in Thalwil! This applies only to he IR75 or S24 based connections. Any previous travel between the airport, Zurich city (+ surroundings) and Thalwil is still covered by that ZVV 9:00 pass. (Should you however hop on a IR70 train which does not stop in Thalwil, you would need a Zurich HB - Lucerne ticket as “extension” instead, costing 27.00 instead of 20.40… so the total of 54.00 would exceed the 52.00 SDP price)
Those 2 restrictions above do not apply to the Saver Day Pass. However as a downside, such “saver” offers can not be refunded or exchanged in most cases.