Lomapaseo

The wife and I as USA seniors will have 3 days avail in May to take day trips out of Basel on Swiss rail

We had hoped to find senior discounted rail tickets that would give us 1st class.

We now have spent two days searching the web and are coming to the realization that no senior discounts are offered and that we may have to sit in our hotel for a day or two after seeing the extremely high railfares compared to our past visits.

Have we missed something?

any suggestions?

JoostvD

I am a little puzzled why first class is so important. The Swiss Rail is an excellent system, in my experience, in second class as well. And they do offer discounts, although not specifically for older people.

Lomapaseo

Well I don't recall saying how important first class was. But I had hoped it might be available.

Still looking for an afforable price in any class for a senior on pension. All I could find were affordable fares if I could diguise myself to look 25 or less perhaps with a backpack and a walking stick rather than a cane

FlyingSwiss

Hi,

What you probably want and need is a "Swiss Pass" which would give you free rides on almost all Public Transportation incl. many mountain trains and boats on the lakes.

http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/en/

JoostvD

When you wrote "we may have to sit in our hotel for a day or two" after not being able to find "discounted 1st class" that is why I felt you were saying it was important.

I suspect part of the reason you see prices so high is also because of the low US dollar exchange rate.

The site FlyingSwiss showed you is special prices for non-Swiss people visiting the country. If you choose second class, you will find prices are much lower. In most countries, first class costs 50 percent more than second class. In Switzerland, as well as many other countries, the seats in second class are quite as comfortable as the seats in first class.

If you buy two tickets, you will receive a discount of 15 percent.

You can also look at a RailPlus card, for example here. This is designed for international travel, but, if you buy your Swiss rail tickets in another country with the RailPlus card, you will receive a 25 percent discount. While the RailPlus card is usually sold for a small amount, in my country, older people get one for free as a sort of discount.

FlyingSwiss

As regular traveler on the Swiss railways, I can confirm that you usually won't need 1st class travel. Except for peak hour travel, where the main advantage is the better seating availability.

You can upgrade your ticket directly on the train for most of the InterCity-trains.

RailPlus is a great thing. However, only applies to cross-border connections, not for domestic-only Tickets.

nrr

Many mountain trips have NO first class [Rigi Bahn, Mt. Tittlis, Mt. Pilatus to name a few very popular trips.] At www.sbb.ch/en they are running an up to 50% off on certain trips, the trouble with this is you must specify the date and time(in advance of traveling)--probably not a good idea for a tourist--since you want to ride on days with nice weather, which you can't predict in advance.
A 2nd class 4 day Swiss Pass is $281. With proper planning (by looking at the Swiss Timetable), one can cover lots of beautiful scenery without lots of layovers--since the Swiss train network is punctual and lots of connections exist between EVERY major Swiss city.
PS: The Swiss Pass does not cover expensive mount trips like Jungfrau, but it does cover Rigi and Zermat.

Lomapaseo

Thanks for the replies.

It confirms everything that I researched via the net.

It just took some convincing for me to accept that I couldn't compete for a 25YO or under fare.

sigh, if only I was young or at least working again

JoostvD

It is fairly common in Europe that rail companies focus on young people because they are the future customers. They also usually do not have as much income as older people do. People over 60 or 65 can usually get discounts but it varies quite a bit and it is usually more designed for local people rather than tourists.

In my country, for example, a train discount card (almost all countries have these) includes 7 almost-free trips in the Netherlands and a free RailPlus if you are over 60. This card costs €55 per year. So, it is not really useful for tourists who will only travel on the trains here once or twice per year.