sebhoff

Hi all,
I have a booking for a return flight to BSL (from MAN), with an airtrain connection between Basel and Zurich Airport. Following a change in the schedule of my meetings in Switzerland, I might now actually end up in Zurich on the evening before the return flight. I have been trying to determine whether I am actually forced to take the train from Basel to Zurich, or whether I can get away with simply boarding the plane in ZRH.
According to the Swiss helpline, I absolutely *must* take the train - otherwise my flight would be cancelled. I have seen reports of people here on the forum who seem not to have taken the train (and still have collected miles) and got away with it. Now, I don't collect miles - so this is not the issue. But I am obviously concerned about Swiss cancelling my flight to MAN. Can anyone give me some input on this? If I have to, I will of course travel to Basel just to take the next train back - but it seems a bit silly to do this.
Thanks!
sebhoff

rorschi

Hello,

you don't need to take the train - you just have to make sure that the flight number isn't LX2990 or LX2991 - these aren't trains...

The answer you got from the Swiss helpline is pure BS (were you connected with Cape Town or Bombay?).
Who should check your presence on the train, and how should this be done?
As you can take every train the day the ticket is issued for, and board and deboard everywhere between Zurich Airport and Basle, there is a big chance anyway that no ticket controller sees your ticket.

BTW: Welcome to Flyertalk!

GK1998

no reason to take the train, there is no way for them to check whether you were on it or not. I have never checked in at the Basel train station, always do that at ZRH. no need to worrry about it.

yamatthey

You don't need to take the train, but it's better for you to check-in on-line to validate your BSL-ZRH.
Swiss helpline agents (in Switzerland or through Mindpearl) are not allowed to tell you that you don’t need to use your train connection.

chumbawumba

Welcome to FT, sebhoff.

as long as you checked in for the airtrain, and as long as it is not the actual flight LX2990 or LX2991, you will not face any problem.

As yamatthey stated, do online checkin before. Then you will get the paper ticket for the train. If you do not issue the paper ticket (somehow check in), SWISS will cancel your other flights.

goliath

I can confirm what previous posters have said. No need to worry about your flight being cancelled as long as you check in online for BSL-ZRH(-MAN) (actually it will be ZDH-ZRH on a LX 74xx flight no.).

I have done it before for the purpose of getting additional miles - and sometimes you even get cheaper prices booking ZDH-ZRH-XXX instead of ZRH-XXX.

More information regarding the Airtrain can be found here: Link

rorschi

LX does not enforce you to have access to a computer with a printer everywhere you are. SWISS is not Ryanair...

Airtrain travel without prior check-in
If it is not possible to check-in prior to the Airtrain departure, as an exception, the SBB conductor will accept confirmation of your flight booking. Your ticket number must be visible on your travel documentation.

Of course, if you can check in online, you better do it.

goliath

That is correct, of course. But that doesn't help if you don't take the train. That only covers the problem of actually taking the train without prior check in.

To prevent any problem, I would still recommend to check in online. If your computer doesn't have a printer, you can still have the BP reprinted at the ZRH check in counter.

sebhoff

Thanks for all your responses (and welcome messages)! I'll definitely check in online then! One thing I was getting worried about was that someone in ZRH would want to see that the ticket was checked by the conductor on the train - but that doesn't seem to be the case. Good.
Thanks again!
sebhoff

FlyIce

I skipped one flight sector and I was still able to fly.
It was a STR-ZRH and I tried to check in online with no success (I hate LH site for web C-in) and then I headed for ZRH with the check-in only for the second flight.
I was able to fly but now my eticket shows that the coupon for that sector is "Cancelled" and when I claimed miles the answer was "Not on passenger list" - curious for a flight that I actually boarded.

So my conclusion is that you'll be able to fly but you might experience some problems later with miles or other.

sebhoff

OK - just got back. It worked.
Thanks again for your help!
sebhoff

SmilingBoy

Nobody has commented on this?

f4free

Just one word of caution: You will likely not get away with regularly booking the airtrain without using it just to collect extra miles or save money. SBB does in fact submit the data of train passangers to Swiss, just not on an immediate basis. I assume this is done once a month.

You will not have a problem doing this, once or twice. But on if you do this 20 or 30 times, or more, you likely will get a call from Swiss once they notice that you booked 30 train segments and haven't used them. I know this as a fact.

Rambuster

Motion to immediately suspend Sebhoff for not collecting miles!

rorschi

Yes, but this was from the time when you had to be on the train you have booked (before 2006).

As you can use any train nowadays between ZRH and BSL, and not all trains in Switzerland have controllors (e.g. the regional trains Frick-Basle), it's virtually impossible to report anything. The train controllors just check if your ticket is valid, but do no longer retain or submit any data.