Hi

Anyone know if/how I can buy a train ticket for someone else (they wouldn't start their journey from where I live) ?

just buy it from the ticket counters or the ticket machines around the station - easy

so long as they have the ticket in their possession when they start the journey no problem ( I think )

There must be more to this than meets the eye. Go to the station. Buy a ticket. Pay for it. Send it to the person who needs it. This obviously can't be right or you would not be asking, so what is the catch?

I thought it was a pretty silly question as well, and one answered easily enough at any SBB ticket office as opposed to a bunch of guessers on a forum, but perhaps it's foreign travel--I think for reserving seats, for example, the SBB needs to put a name to the reservation. Still, easy enough for someone else to purchase the ticket.

So what's the catch, Ipoddle?

lol...

Thanks for the quick replies.. as I said.. they wouldn't be starting their journey from where I live... i.e. I'm not going to be physically with them when they start their journey.

However.. I've since delved into the sbb.ch website and discovered that I can buy the ticket online and then send it to their mobile phone.. their 'ticket' becomes an SMS !

Anyone ever done that ?

another way.

buy it online. you only need the receipt number to pick it up at a train station.

The times I've done it was to have it sent to my own mobile phone ( ie to the mobile phone number that was provided upon registration of an account with SBB ). Not sure if the "ticket" can be sent to another person's mobile phone though.

Edit: MMS tickets are not transferable etc. here.

Maybe they can't afford a train ticket? or Ipoddle is responsible for their travel arrangements? or that she's able to buy tickets cheaper for them??

Yes, I do this quite often--nice service.

Where you buy your ticket has no bearing on the starting point of your journey--every SBB ticket office will sell you tickets to and from pretty much anywhere. Isn't the Interwebz wonderful?

Confirmed. It works as charm

She !!!!!!


I'm all poddle....

Thanks again for the replies.. I should have framed the original request more accurately.

I never use the trains in Switzerland so have no idea.. seems like the SMS/pick up the ticket at the departure point with the reference number is straightforward enough...

It's not an SMS, rather an MMS i.e. an SMS with Multimedia, in this case a gif image containing a 2D barcode with your ticket information. If the recipient has a MMS capable mobile phone (which I assume is not a difficulty nowadays), then you could receive the ticket on your mobile phone, and forward it to the person. However, this gif image contains the name of the registered person too, and any Halbtax card information if provided, which ideally should match. So you are better off creating an account for this person to begin with on the SBB website, registering their mobile number for receiving MMS tickets, and finally booking the ticket and sending across the MMS from the website.

P.S. If the receiver can access their email, then a PDF file can also be sent, which could be printed out as a ticket. Choices choices choices!

Buy then ticket online and send the PDF to them. That's what my work does when I need a ticket.

Very bizarre thread. With so many unnecessary complications. They can order online and print it themselves. If you have to do it, just email them the pdf.

We were very lucky the OP didn't come back two hours later and say that he had actually meant a train ticket from Melbourne to Perth or something! Wouldn't be the first time this has happened which is why I, for one, am reluctant these days to spend a lot of time looking up answers until I actually know what the question is.

The whole point of asking "What options do I have to accomplish X ?" implies that I have absolutely no fore knowledge of any potential solutions.. so, from my perspective 'just email them the pdf.' is bombastically supercilious.

It is not a bizarre thread. It is a typical thread.. dissonant with the innocence of a neophyte, the inquisitiveness of interlopers, the condescension of adepts and, ultimately, the benevolence of kindly strangers.

I happened to meet a girl at the Bahnof struggling to buy a Tageskarte for her friend at a ticket machine (have you seen the number of choices the machine throws on you!?)... by profession she happened to be a SBB train driver, and hadn't purchased a ticket for quite some time!

Verily, verily it is. In the Transportation/Driving Forum there is a Sticky. It is called The Swiss Public Transport System
In the first post in this Sticky there is a line which says Swiss Transport Network - Site Map in English – If you have questions, look here first. There are links under the 346 sub-titles. If you look under 'Market for Travel' there are a whole lot of further links about tickets. Under on-line tickets there is also a FAQ link.

Certainly it is a lot quicker to ask if anyone knows the answer to a question as it can take quite a time to look at all the possibilities but it is not a bad idea to look up the site oneself too, ready for next time.