Half Fare Card for Tourists and Easyride

Lleellaucis19

Hi, if I’ve purchased the Half Fare Card using my Swisspass login, am I able to enjoy the half fare prices via Easyride? How do I go about doing that?

RolandP

Hello Lleellaucis19

Are you now talking about the Swiss Half Fare Card or the Half Fare Card?

Yes, EasyRide can be used even with the Swiss Half Fare Card. The Swiss Half Fare Card offers the same advantages as the Half Fare Card.

E-Tickets and EasyRide need your physical passport or ID (no paper copies / no photos of it on smartphones).

However, I do not recommend EasyRide for tourists for longer trips. It might be a good thing for rides within a city where the zone tickets can be overwhelming.

For day trips or mountain excursion trips, however, you should look at Saver Day Passes, Day Passes, or even tourist offers and tailor-made tourist passes.

Kind regards,
Roland

RedBaron

Lleellaucis19
I second Rolands recommendation to not use EasyRide on longer trips.

EasyRide is draining the phone battery pretty hard, expect approx. 10% per hour with a newer, regular sized phone. Always carry some powerbank with you cabable of fully recharging your mobile multiple times, otherwise you’re screwed.
You’re generally not saving any money thanks to EasyRide, excepted for 10% on return trips within the ZVV (Canton of Zurich) fare network. On the contrary, you’re missing any “Saver” deals available until one day before travel.
There are some additional gotchas and pitfalls, which may turn out expensive in case of a ticket control: Get familiar with all instructions / FAQs listed here. Check the EasyRide validity map by zooming in sufficiently regarding where EasyRide isn’t supported (e.g. many Alpine cable cars = gray solid lines). Make strictly sure to ALWAYS activate EasyRide BEFORE entering the vehicle, and in case of underground stations (e.g. Zurich HB or Airport) EVEN BEFORE taking the escalators down!

Lleellaucis19

Thank you so much for the replies and tips. Just to check, are the Saver Day Passes, Day Passes, or even tourist offers and tailor-made tourist passes available on the SBB Mobile app too?

RedBaron

Lleellaucis19 (Saver) Day Passes are indeed available on the SBB Mobile app. Other tourist passes such as the Bernese Oberland Pass are only available from the respective websites.

You’ll find the Saver Day Passes in their own section under the “Shop & Services” tab. They may also appear as one of the ticket options when the available tickets for a particular connection are displayed, but only if the SDP price is similar or less than the regular point-to-point ticket price. In other words, if just looking up a short and therefore “cheap” connection, the more expensive SDP option will not appear.
OTOH Supersaver tickets may also appear as option (usually until one day before travel date), but bear in mind that those supersavers are tied to the particular connection. The deal is lower price vs. higher own risk. So if you miss that train by your own fault, you lost that money and need to re-buy another ticket.

In my previous post, I missed another potential EasyRide issue:
While activated, EasyRide sends and receives approx. 1MB of data per hour. Depending on your mobile data plan (roaming costs abroad), this could mean another pitfall.