GA Familia

Staffed ticket offices

You can purchase the GA Travelcard at your BLS Travel Centre or at a staffed public transport ticket office. In this case, please bring your SwissPass with you. If you don’t have a SwissPass, please bring a recent analogue or digital passport photo and your passport or ID card.

Annual payment or monthly payment

You can pay for the GA Travelcard annually or monthly. If you pay monthly, you can cancel the GA Travelcard – subject to the minimum contract period of six months – at any time. If you pay annually, you save at least CHF 20.00 per month.

When you purchase a GA Travelcard, you enter into an open-ended contract, meaning that your travel card on the existing SwissPass card is automatically extended by one year or one month, depending on the period of validity chosen. Two months before expiry, you’ll receive a reminder informing you of the latest possible cancellation date. Please note: the GA Travelcard for 25 year olds is only valid for one year and is then converted into a GA Travelcard for adults.

Über swisspass.ch you can subscribe to an additional cancellation reminder by e-mail or SMS.

Minimum contract period

Each GA Travelcard has a minimum contract period of six months at the beginning, regardless of the payment frequency chosen. You then decide whether you want your travel card to continue or whether you want to cancel it with one month's notice to the end of any travel card month.

With the GA Travelcard you travel without restriction on the routes of BLS and most other Swiss railways, on ships, in post buses and on urban local transport. However, there are some exceptions and restrictions, so we recommend to find out the exact range of validity before beginning your journey.

A GA Travelcard allows you to you benefit from attractive discounts and benefits:

• Enjoy up to 50% discount or other bonuses (e.g. goods voucher, drink) on numerous leisure offers such as events, shows, museum admissions, etc. The best thing to do is enquire directly with the provider.

• With a GA Travelcard, you can purchase a Park+Rail travel card and park your car directly at the station.

• Save CHF 5.00 on short-term bike rental at Rent a Bike.

• Free currency exchange at BLS Travel Centres.

• You will receive a 15% discount when renting a car or commercial vehicle from Europcar in Switzerland.

• Discover exciting leisure offers and attractive products from the SwissPass Plus Partners.

• If you have a GA Travelcard for 1st class together with a valid international ticket, you get access to the Railteam lounges with free drinks, WiFi and a separate railway station counter.

SwissPass, one card for everything

With the purchase of a travel card, you automatically receive the SwissPass. All you need is a valid ID card or passport and a recent passport photo. As a new customer, you can also now purchase your travelcard in the BLS-Webshop and confirm your identity online in just a few minutes without having to find a ticket office.

If you already have a SwissPass, you can use your GA Travelcard from the first day of validity. Otherwise, the GA Travelcard on the SwissPass will be sent by post within approx. 10 days.

If you decide to purchase a GA Travelcard, you will receive a pro rata refund for other travel cards you no longer need, such as Half fare, Regional, Point-to-point or Modular travel cards. Get in touch with a BLS Travel Centre using the SwissPass on which your previous season ticket is referenced and you will receive a corresponding credit.

If you don’t need your GA Travelcard for a certain period of time, you can interrupt it for at least five consecutive days and up to a maximum of 30 days per travel card year. With just a few clicks, you can deposit or interrupt your GA Travelcard yourself on swisspass.ch.

The credit for the deposited days will be credited to you on the next GA Travelcard invoice after the deposit expires. Please note that depending on your travel card, this may only be the case after one year.

GA Travelcards that are paid for monthly or annually can be cancelled six months after the first day of validity at the earliest. Cancellation must be made at least one month before the end of a travel card month. This means that you can cancel your GA Travelcard after five months at the earliest, at the end of the sixth month. If you pay annually, you will be refunded the unused months less a processing fee of CHF 10.00.

On swisspass.ch you can cancel your travel card yourself in just a few steps. We’ll also be happy to accept your cancellation in person or by telephone at the BLS Travel Centre.

If you wish to cancel your annually paid GA Travelcard early, you will be reimbursed for the unused months. The repayment amount is calculated per used month used and not per day. 9% of the purchase price is deducted per month used. In addition, a handling fee of CHF 10.00 will be charged.

Example

On purely tourist mountain railways such as the Jungfraujoch, the GA Travelcard is not usually valid and you pay a reduced or even the full fare. The GA Travelcard is usually valid for mountain railways that serve residential areas.

With the GA Travelcard, you can travel by boat free of charge on most of Switzerland's large lakes.

Exceptions: Lake Greifen, Lake Lugano, Lac de Joux, Lac des Brenets, Lake Poschiavo, Lake Sils and Lake Walen.

You can find more information the Swiss transport companies tariff provisions here: