Travelling on The Bernina Express

(1) Like the Glacier Express, the Bernina Express uses special panoramic coaches with extra large windows.
Though the newer RhB regular trains between St Moritz and Tirano also have large windows, bigger than on the older regular trains.

(2) Regular coaches, which are cheaper because they don't have the mandatory reservation fees required for travel in the panoramic cars, are also typically available on Bernina Express departures, though not all departures have them.

(3) In the panoramic and regular coaches both first and second class is available, in first class the seats are larger, they have more leg room and are arranged 2 + 1 across the aisle instead of 2 + 2.
So parties of two people can avoid having people occupying the seat next to them.
Note that there is no catering benefit to travel in first class.

(4) Seats in the panoramic coaches must be reserved and they can be booked up to twelve months ahead.
You have to choose specific seats on a seating plan, though you cannot choose on which side of the train to sit.
If you want to travel on a specific departure, note that seats in the panoramic cars can be fully booked months ahead of a travel date.

(5) If you have a valid Eurail, Interrail or Swiss Travel Pass, or Saver Day Pass you can travel in the panoramic cars on The Bernina Express by only paying the reservation fee.
But if you will be using a rail pass, you can also opt to board into the ordinary coaches/cars which don't require a reservation.

(6) A recent change is that both tickets and reservations can now be booked together up to 12 months ahead, previously the reservations could be booked 6 months in advance of the tickets.

(7) Though option is to book the reservation for the panoramic cars online and then but your ticket(s) at the station, just prior to boarding - the reservations can sell out in advance, but the journey tickets won'y

(8) Or if you have already booked tickets and then subsequently decide that you want to travel in the panoramic cars, you can book go back to the website and book separate reservations.

(9) Reservations are not possible in the ordinary coaches, though a benefit of travelling 1st class is that the ordinary 1st class coaches tend to be much less busy than 2nd class.

(10) There are direct Bernina Express trains in both directions between Chur and Tirano year round; in the summer season there are ALSO direct trains between Tirano and both Davos and St Moritz.

(11) The Bernina Express trains between Chur and Tirano don’t call at Davos or St Moritz.
However, in winter easy connections to/from Davos are available at Filisur and simple connections are possible at Pontresina for journeys to/from St Moritz.

(12) You don’t have to take the Bernina Express to travel by train in either direction between Chur and Tirano.
Regular RhB trains operate on all parts of the route, but to make the Chur to Tirano journey by the other trains, connections have to be made in both Samedan AND Pontresina - though the transfers couldn’t be more straight forward.

How tickets and reservations can be purchased to travel by the Bernina Express has recently been switched up, as the company which operates the train, the Rhaetian Railway / Rhätische Bahn, has altered its online booking path.

A particularly welcome change is that the tickets and reservations are now in sync, as they can be booked together from 12 months ahead - previously the reservations could be booked up until 6 months ahead of the tickets.
The changeover for this 12 month booking period will be mid-October.

What hasn't changed is that holders of valid rail passes, including Eurail and Interrail passes, only have to book reservations.

When accessing the part of the Rhaetian Railway website which is dedicated to the Bernina Express on a PC or tablet, it's likely that you'll need to scroll down to access the ticket booking.

What has been pointed out above is:
1 and 2. - The from and to stations are on drop down menus, the Bernina Express takes two routes Chur ↔ Tirano, the longer route, and St Moritz ↔ Tirano,
3. - Ignore this symbol, you don't have to book return tickets, The opportunity to add a return comes further along the booking path, along with the opportunities to select 1st and 2nd class, plus adding additional people to the booking.
4. - Use the calendar to choose your travel day; the default will be today.
5. - Note that tickets can now be booked a year ahead!

The arrow has been added to the screenshot, because what won't be obvious is that there is a weight of useful info below this ticket booking area.

If you go down the page below the ticket box, what you can access includes:

1. You can check the ticket prices before you proceed down the booking path - As shown below, there are several steps to take down the booking path before you'll see the ticket price.
2. You can find out more about how the reservations work.
3. Take a look at the timetable to check if the timings of the Bernina Express trains can be accommodated into your itinerary, in Winter there will be only 1 x train in each direction per day.
   Though what's been circled is that you may need to check the dates on which the current timetable is valid for.

Having clicked on 'Find a Connection' on the ticket booking window, you will be given the opportunity to choose the train you'll want to travel by.
Though as can be seen, because the enhanced views from the windows are core to taking the Bernina Express, this stage of the booking gives an an opportunity to assess how likely it will be that you can experience them.

Hence what has been pointed out is:

1. The number of green circles indicates how many seats are still available on each day; No circles = sold out. 1 = limited availability, 4 = excellent choice of seats etc. As can be seen you can easily switch the booking to a different day / time if there is more availability on alternative days to your first choice.
2. What the arrow indicates is that the info you'll see below, correlates to that departure day
3. This 'Show Details' link gives access to more info about the route taken by the train, it doesn't give additional info about the reservations.
4. This is particularly crucial info, as it is showing how many seats are still available for selection in 1st and 2nd class.

Not that the journey was being looked up around 4 months in advance, but despite that, only 11 seats were still available in 1st class on this train.
Also despite the three green lights indicating good availability, there are actually less than 40 seats available for selection on this entire train.

Around a third of the seats in 1st class and around half of the seats in 2nd class are not window seats; So the number of seats shown on this screen doesn't indicate that window seats will still be available on this train.

Having clicked on 'Buy a Ticket' you will see;

1. That booking a one-way / single ticket is the default.
2. But this is the opportunity to book a return / two-way ticket.
3. The button reads 'Choose seats' because selecting specific seats on the train is integral to making a booking on the Bernina Express.

What has been pointed out above is;

1. You need to choose your seats, before
2. Adding the passenger details.

You don't add other passengers to the booking before you choose the seats for all members of the party.
Additional travellers are added to the booking by selecting more than one seat on the plan.

This is the stage of the booking when you can opt to book 1st or 2nd class tickets / reservations.

1. 1st class will be the default and the seating plan that will be initially shown will be for a 1st class coach.
2. However, if you want to travel in 2nd class, you will need to click here, so that you can then access a seating plan for 2nd class coaches.

As can be seen on the screenshot, plans were available for only one coach in both 1st and 2nd class.
I wasn't given an opportunity to look through the train, to have a look at the availability in other coaches.

What the arrow, that's been added to the screenshot, is indicating, is that you may need to scroll down to access the seats.

On this example of a 1st class seating plan, what has been pointed out is;

1. If you will be travelling solo or in a pair, these single seats are the ultimate travel experience, they're all by the windows and nobody will be sat beside you. Though note despite this journey being looked up around 4 months ahead, all of these types of seats have already been claimed!
2. This group of 4 seats is facing each other, as indicated by the seat backs.
3. Note that there is no direction of travel arrow, so it isn't possible to book seats on the left or right-hand sides of the train.
4. Click here to move on to the next stage of the booking path.

You will then be asked to add the name(s) and other details for each passenger, then after this step, you will at the stage when a discount - including whether you will be travelling with a rail pass can be added to the booking.

1. The name etc have been erased for privacy purposes, but you will see the details you have entered here
2. As will be seen below, if you won't be travelling with a pass and don't meet the criteria* for a discount, you still need to make a selection here - Note that can different discounts can be applied to each traveller.
3. Don't click this if you only need a reservation because you will be travelling with a rail pass - instead you will need to select a discount.
4. This is how to move on to the next step of the booking, despite the somewhat odd labelling

*= Discounts include the prices for children.

What has been pointed out above, is that the default is that you (and the other members of your travel party) will be travelling with Half Fare cards.
So if you don't have one, you will need to proactively select 'No Discount'.
If need be, click on 'No Discount' if none of the other discounts / cards apply to you - a selection has to be made on this page in order to complete a booking,

This is the opportunity to check what you have selected pre-payment and to check its price!

1. Note that the price of making the journey is being shown here - Prior to this stage the price shown has solely been the price of the seat reservation(s)!
2. You now always book the reservations and tickets for travel by the Bernina Express together; Previously it was possible to book the reservation and then come back and book a ticket. However, if you will be travelling with a rail pass, all you will see here is the price of the reservation, because you don't need a ticket.
3. You can add other tickets / journeys pre-payment
4. This is the opportunity to check what you have booked, but note that you cannot access the terms and conditions on these booking pages - instead you can find them here in the FAQs section of the website! Though the key piece of info to be aware of, is that tickets can be refunded up to one day before the journey with an administration fee of CHF 10.00
5. Check that you have made the correct selection per traveller before you proceed to payment.