Trying to figure out best ticket option

eagles94

First time traveler in Switzerland. so first time booking a Switzerland train. I am travelling from Geneva to Lucerne in August (one way) with my wife and looking at first class. The supersaver ticket is 168 CHF each, while the point to point is 286 CHF. The supersaver seems to make way more sense based off price, as that is quite the surcharge to pay in fare to only have the advantage of a refundable ticket. Unless I am missing something? Particularly as we have all of our travel dates figured out and hotels booked, so we are certain to be travelling on our planned day, unless disaster strikes.

Additionally, there is saver day pass option for 176 CHF, which is only 8 CHF more per ticket. Th benefit for that ticket looks to be the flexibility that I could get on any train on my day of travel? We want to take the 7:54 train, but for only 8 CHF each…we are paying for the option to take another train that same day if necessary? That seems worth it in the event we ended up preferring to take an earlier train, or if we missed the 7:54 for some crazy reason. But just wanted to confirm I am interpreting all of this correctly. And even with saver day pass, I am still guaranteed entry onto my selected 7:54 train?

Thank you in advance!

Krist

The options are:

Standard point to point ticket. This ticket is for a route, and allows you to make one trip from Geneva to Lucern on a train of your choice. So you are not limited to the train you selected during booking. Is refundable. Price is always the same so there is no need to book in advance.
Supersaver ticket. Cheaper. Non refundable, and linked to a particular train.
Saver Day Pass: Unlimited use of the whole of the Swiss Public Transit System for a day. So ultimate flexibility. Cheaper the further in advance you buy, and non refundable.

None of these tickets guarantee you a seat, but trains are rarely overloaded. The only thing you need to do to be certain you are on a particular train is be on the platform on time. There are no pre boarding procedures.

Note that if you are planning to take more trains, and use mountain railways and cablecars you may want to look in to getting the Half Fare Card.

eagles94

Krsit,

Thank you so much for your detailed and prompt reply! We are planning on taking a couple other trains. A short train from Lucerne to Zurich, which looks cheap. But we would need to do the point-to point ticket, as we aren’t sure on the exact train we’ll take that day, and I don’t see a saver day pass for that route on our day of travel.

And we’re also planning on booking the “Mt Pilatus Golden Round Trip from Lucerne,” not sure if any of that would work with the half fare card?

Tafunge25

Hello eagles94

The half-fare card does give some reduction on most places, but not always 50% off. The Saver’s daypasses are for valid on some mountain railways(e.g. Rigi and Stoos SZ), give a reduction on others and make no difference on the rest.
Here is a map which shows you where which ticket is valid (select ticket in the top left).
If the difference between Saver’s daypass and Saver’s ticket is that small, I would recommend you the daypass - the flexibility is in my opinion worth much more than 8 Francs.

Krist

Remember that the Saver Day Pass is good on all public transit. It is not just for the route you selected during purchase. So it will also cover any bus or tram ride from your accommodation to the station in Geneva, and any bus rides in Luzern afterwards. And since it includes everything there is nothing stopping you for having a boat ride, or a quick trip to the Rigi or so if you arrive in Luzern early enough.

You start the purchase of a train ticket by selecting from a schedule. The system uses that the propose different tickets for you. However that does not automatically apply that the ticket is only valid for the connection you selected.