Difficulty Creating SwissPass Online

Llaloipough84

My wife and I are coming to Switzerland on Thursday. We want to buy a Half Pass Card and the Bernese Oberland Regional Pass. My understanding is that you need a SwissPass to get a customer number in order purchase tickets online on the SBB app and website.
When I try sign up for the Swisspass, I am told I need to provide and verify my phone number. My wife is experience the same. We live in the US, so the phone number should be +1 (area code)-(phone number). When we type this in it either says there is a problem and doesn’t provide a verification number, or it asks us to verify with the provided verification number, which it never sends us. When this issue was addressed on another discussion, the recommendation was to get a SwissPass and purchase a half fare card when arriving in Switzerland https://community.sbb.ch/d/26895-buy-half-fare-card-online-without-a-public-transport-travelcard-before). We will be arriving after a 15+ hour trip (included trip to airport, with layovers). We would like to avoid waiting in line. We have had difficulties with jet lag before. How do we setup our SwissPass so we can purchase tickets before we arrive? Is this possible? Then how do we purchase and add our half fare pass to the SBB app?

Sincerely,
Aron

RolandP

Hello Llaloipough84

Since your understanding is incorrect, you have taken the wrong path and are about to purchase the Half Fare Card for residents, which requires much more administrative effort than the tourist version, the Swiss Half Fare Card.

You can simply create an account with SBB, stating that you do not have a customer number. As a tourist, you will not need a customer number. After creating an account, you can simply purchase the Swiss Half Fare Card. You can also download the SBB Mobile app and use the same username and password to authenticate yourself there..

https://www.swisspass.ch/register/1

In order to utilise your Swiss Half Fare Card within the SBB Mobile application, it is necessary to activate the ½ fare setting for each individual traveller. Please see the screenshots in this post to understand how it is done:

https://community.sbb.ch/d/26418-how-can-i-save-the-info-of-swiss-half-fare-card/2

If you want to bypass all the account stuff, you can simply purchase the Swiss Half Fare Card from the Switzerland Travel Center. There, no account is needed, on the other hand, when buying from them, the Swiss Half Fare Card cannot be seen later in the SBB Mobile app.

https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/planning/transport-accommodation/tickets-public-transport/swiss-half-fare-card/

Please let us know if you have got further queries.

Kind regards,
Roland