How to Book Tickets for Day and Night trains on the SBB website

The Swiss national rail operator, SBB has launched a simplified online ticket booking service.

Though what it shares with the previous version is that it is understandably designed to be primarily used by Swiss citizens, so it has a number of unconventional features for international users.
But once these have been understood, it has become easier to book tickets for Swiss rail journeys - including journeys which include a combination of mainline trains + the mountain railways.
So the stations that can be selected in the 'From' and 'To' boxes include stations in Switzerland which aren't served by SBB trains.

Also the same booking path is now used for both national and international trains, including the night trains from Switzerland.
So the stations that can be selected in the 'From' and 'To' boxes, also include international destinations which are served by direct trains from and to Switzerland

What's good to know when booking with SBB is that selecting options such as:

• adding additional travellers,
• booking return journeys,
• opting for 1st class,
  all come at a later stage of the booking process.

What has been highlighted in the image above is that when travelling between city centres by train, you will want the 'From' and 'To' locations to be the city's main stations
So what should happen to make this easier, is that as you enter the name of the city, a list of the stations in that city will appear as selection options - but the main station will appear first, at the top of the list.

On the SBB website, as you adjust the date and departure time to meet your requirements, the journey options which are a match for them, will automatically appear.
You will then have a number of options for reaching your destination, from which you need to choose the one which suits you.
What's worth knowing when making this decision has been illustrated above.

1. Something a tad unusual is that on each row, the price is above the journey details - Also note that a % symbol + the price being shown on a black background, indicates that discounted 'Supersaver / Sparbillette' tickets are available when travelling on this specific departure.
2. These white circles with black borders along the line, indicate whether a journey option involves a change of train, so no circles = a direct journey
3. If you want to take a non-folding bicycles, these symbols indicate the journey options on which bike storage places are available.
4. On many routes there will be a choice of direct departures, so it can pay off to double check both the journey times and the price, particularly as the fastest option can also also be the cheapest.

This ticket selection step is a particularly unusual feature of the booking tickets with SBB.
So what's worth knowing is:

1. If you want to book a return journey you will need to proactively select it.
2. Similarly if you want to travel first class - this easy to miss tool is the only means of accessing those tickets.
3. Discounted 'Supersaver / Sparbillette' tickets are available on this selected departure, so SBB assumes that they will be your preference, hence they have been pre- selected, but Point-To-Point tickets can be chosen instead - and the core reason for booking these is that you won't then have to travel on the one specific departure.
4. SBB has also assumed that ticket bookers will be in possession of a Half-Fare Travelcard, as most Swiss residents who travel by train have them - but if you don't have a Half-Fare Travelcard you will still need to choose this option - what will seem odd is that you 'inform' SBB that you don't have one, at the next stage at the booking process.
5. SBB will also show the cost of booking a Saver Day pass instead - if you opt for it you can then take any trains on your travel date, so won't be tied to a travelling on a specific departure. Plus there can are other benefits of the pass, such as using it to travel to and from the stations on public transport.
   When booking a return, or a long one-way journey to a mountain railway destination, the Saver Day Pass can be cheaper - and when that is the case, it will be offered as the default booking option - see below.
6. If the journey you will be taking is by an express Inter City train, you can choose to add an optional seat reservation to your booking.
   Though the slightly odd wording of 'Seat reservation only' is because you can take the same steps to subsequently add a seat reservation after you have booked at ticket.

This is an example of when booking a Saver Day Pass(es) is cheaper than booking a SuperSaver / Sparbillete ticket, so SBB is defaulting to the Saver Day Pass(es) as the cheaper option - and not giving the option to book the SuperSaver / Sparbillete ticket(s)
When this occurs it very much makes sense to go ahead and book the Saver Day Pass option for multiple reasons:

1. The Saver Day Pass will cover the journey, you won't need to buy any other tickets.
2. The Saver Day Pass will also cover travel by public transport two and from the rail stations.
3. You can use the pass to travel on any combinations of trains on your travel date, which is the same freedom that the Point-to-Point ticket(s) will provide, so you can extend the connecting time between the trains on your route etc.
4. The Saver Day Pass won't include seat reservations, but the Point-to-Point ticket(s) also won't include them.

However, the one key benefit of opting to paying extra for the Point-to-Point ticket(s), is that they can be fully refunded ahead of travel.

Having opted to 'Continue' along the booking path, you will now be given a choice of:

• purchasing as a guest - if you will only ever be booking a couple of Swiss rail tickets, then this option is quicker and easier,
• or you can in effect register as a user of SBB - and the core benefits of doing so are explained on this page.

Up until this stage of the booking path, SBB has 'assumed that you will have a Half Fare travelcard, so this where you enter how you will in fact be travelling.
So the key two things to note here are:

1. If you don't have a Half Fare Travelcard, you will need to proactively select 'No Discount' - and because the Half Fare travelcard live up to its name - the price you have previously seen for all the ticket types; or the Saver Day Pass, will now be doubled on the payment page.
2. Another feature that's a tad odd, is that because SBB assumes that most ticket bookers will have a Half Fare card, it sees the primary function of this page to add other travellers to the ticket booking.
   The logic behind the name of the page is that even when only one passenger is travelling, you won't yet have 'told' SBB who that traveller is.

What has been pointed out above is that if you add another traveller, you will have to proactively inform SBB if they don't have a Half Fare Card, so that they will also be travelling with 'No discount'.

When making a booking on SBB, if you want to check if and how your ticket can be subsequently exchanged or refunded, you need to be proactive and click on the terms link on this page.

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The booking path for night trains on the SBB website is comparatively easy to use, particularly as it has now been further improved.

A major change to how night trains can be booked on the new look SBB website, compared to the previous version, is that booking a night train no longer has a separate starting point.
Instead the from and to stations can be entered as when looking up a daytime journey.
Though what will then happen is that the night train will then be listed along with the daytime journey options, so you will then need to find it.
Hence what's good to know is:

1. The type of train is a guide, you will see NJ for a Nightjet or EN for the other type of night trains.
2. Of course the departure and arrival times can also be used as a guide.
3. Having found the departure, you can click on the 'Buy' button.

Destinations which can be reached by night train from Switzerland include: Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Dresden, Graz, Hamburg, Leipzig, Ljubljana, Prague (by two routes), Vienna and Zagreb

Aside from the trains which head to Praha from Zurich via Linz on which only sleeping cabins are available, the night trains on the other routes from Switzerland convey a combination of seats, couchettes and sleeping cabins.
But on the SBB website the coaches which house the seats are referred to as EC or IC trains, as they are no different to the 2nd class coaches which can be found on the daytime EC or IC services.
These EC / IC trains are listed separately on the booking path.

On the typical example above for a journey by a Nightjet service

what has been pointed out is;

1. Note that the departure and arrival times, for what initially looks like two different departures, are in fact the same.
2. The NJ symbol indicates that this is the booking path to access the couchette (bunks) and sleeping cabin (beds).
3. The IC symbol indicates that this is the booking path to access the seats; booking a seat is then little different to making a booking for a daytime journey.
4. This option has been listed first by SBB because it gets to the final destination faster, connecting into a morning express trains as the night train nears its final destination is often a timer saver - but making the entire journey on the one direct train, is an option, despite it being further down the page.

From this point on the booking path differs from that taken when booking a day train.
On the night train booking path you will have to make a guest booking, because only Swiss citizens can have a 'SwissPass'.

Because Swiss Half Fare cards can't be used on international night trains - 'no discount' is the default, because this is the rate which those without Half Fare Cards will have to pay.

If you want to travel in a couchette or a sleeping cabin, it's best to choose the EN or NJ options at Step One.
Having done so SBB will 'assume' that you will want to travel in a couchette, so this will be the default.
Hence what's good to know at this stage is that

1. This is the price of travelling in a couchette with 6 berths / bunks, but other couchette options are typically available, but you will need to scroll down the page to see them - as indicated by the arrow that has been added to the image.
2. If you want to travel in a sleeping cabin, you will need to click this red button.

Note that having clicked this red button you may then be informed that 'sleeping cabins are not available'.
Though what can be awkward is you will see the same message in all of these scenarios:

• all of the beds in the sleeping cabins have sold out on this departure,
• sleeping cabins aren't actually available on this departure,
• the tickets for the sleeping cabins haven't been placed on sale yet - the tickets for the couchettes / seats can be placed on sale ahead of the release of the sleeping cabin tickets.

If sleeping cabin tickets are available, it's worth being aware of these three things:

1. The cheapest type of ticket will be pre-selected as the default - and the costs of the other available options will be included below.
2. The bed in the sleeping cabins will be bunk-bed style, so when an individual is booking one place in a multi-bed cabin, you can be given a choice of top, middle or bottom.
3. On SBB the costs you will see for the sleeping cabins is the total cost of travelling by them - other booking services can add the sleeping cabin reservation fee to the journey cost, but SBB does not do this.

Though having chosen your sleeping cabin option and checked the price, what can be confusing is that you may not see a buy or confirm button - which would ordinarily be a logical next step at this stage of a booking process.
Instead you may be given the option of 'Fare Conditions; Saver Offer' - but to access the offers you will need to click on the + symbol.

If you are given the option to select a 'Saver Offer', the following things can be worth looking out for:

1. The cheapest ticket option will be the default, but note that it can't be exchanged or refunded.
2. The price of the more flexible option, is worth looking at twice, as it may not be much more expensive.
3. The total price to pay will now match the offer - but the accommodation you are booking, won't have changed
4. SBB seems to assume that passengers will most want to book a return journey, so this will be the default - but if you want to only travel one way, you will need to proactively select the grey option.