Yes, if the Glacier Express is the centrepiece of your trip and you are travelling as a couple who will enjoy eight hours of being looked after; no, if you simply want the view, because first class has the same panoramic windows for CHF 590 less. Excellence Class is a mandatory reservation of CHF 590 per person on top of a first class ticket, CHF 284 for the full Zermatt to St. Moritz route at the fares published for the timetable that starts in December 2026, so the day costs about CHF 874 per person against roughly CHF 338 in first class.
That is the summary. The rest is what the money buys, how the booking calendar really works, and who I would and would not put in that carriage. For the train itself, the route, the seats and the seasons, start with my full Glacier Express guide, and if you are still deciding between the two great Swiss trains, read Glacier Express or Bernina Express first.
What Excellence Class includes
Excellence Class is one carriage on the train, carrying twenty passengers, with its own crew. According to the official Excellence Class page, the reservation covers:
- A guaranteed window seat. Single seats either side of the aisle, two facing each other across a table, so nobody is on the aisle and nobody shares with strangers.
- A welcome desk and check-in on the platform, and luggage carried to and from the train.
- A concierge who stays with the carriage for the whole journey.
- Champagne and an aperitif platter on departure, then a seasonal five-course menu with wine, plus mineral water, soft drinks and coffee throughout.
- Access to the Glacier Bar at the end of the carriage for cocktails and wine.
- A tablet with infotainment and Wi-Fi, headphones, and the Excellence Class magazine.
The thing to understand is that Excellence Class is not a different ticket. It is a reservation supplement that happens to include lunch and everything else. You still need a valid first class ticket or a first class Swiss Travel Pass for the route, and a second class pass does not qualify. Excellence Class is sold only for the full route between Zermatt and St. Moritz, in either direction, not for the shorter legs from Chur or Brig.
The price in 2026 and 2027
Two sets of figures matter, because the operator raised both the supplement and the base fare for the timetable that begins on 5 December 2026. Any 2027 date will be charged at the higher rate.
| Per person, one way | 2026 season | From December 2026 (2027 dates) |
|---|---|---|
| Excellence Class reservation, meals included | CHF 540 | CHF 590 |
| First class ticket, Zermatt to St. Moritz | CHF 272 | CHF 284 |
| Standard seat reservation, first or second class | CHF 54 | CHF 54 |
| Day in Excellence Class, all in | ≈ CHF 812 | ≈ CHF 874 |
| Day in first class, lunch not included | ≈ CHF 326 | ≈ CHF 338 |
The current figures are from the operator's prices page, which does not label them by year. The CHF 540 and CHF 272 figures are what the train charged through the 2026 season and are still the ones quoted by MySwitzerland at the time of writing. With a first class Swiss Travel Pass the ticket is covered and you pay only the CHF 590 reservation. Children get no real discount here: in Excellence Class every child needs a full seat reservation and a ticket, with a half fare ticket for six to sixteen year olds.
How to book, and how far ahead
Book through the operator, not through SBB. Glacier Express reservations are sold on shop.glacierexpress.ch, and SBB's own reservations page sends you to a point of sale rather than letting you reserve the train online. Excellence Class has its own page in the shop, where you reserve the seat and buy the ticket together.
The calendar is different from the rest of the train, and this is the part most people miss. Ordinary first and second class reservations open 93 days before travel. Excellence Class reservations open for the entire timetable period, from December to the following October, in a single release each October. So for any 2027 date, summer included, the seats go on sale in October 2026, roughly nine months before the peak season. With twenty seats on each departure, the popular dates go early. If your date is fixed, book the day the season opens.
Two cautions. Online reservations generally cannot be changed or cancelled, so a CHF 590 reservation is money committed to a date, and your travel insurance needs to know about it. And the ticket is sold separately from 180 days out if you are not using a pass, so do not assume a reservation alone gets you on the train.
[PAU: add personal note on how far ahead Alpina reserves Excellence seats for clients and which dates have sold out in your experience.]
Seasons and the timetable
The Glacier Express runs two timetables and takes a break between them. The official timetable shows no service from 11 October to 4 December 2026, then the winter timetable from 5 December 2026 to 7 May 2027, with the summer timetable following from May to early October. In summer there are up to four departures a day in each direction; in winter it drops to one or two. Excellence Class runs on a single pair of trains, leaving St. Moritz at 08:38 and arriving in Zermatt at 17:04, or leaving Zermatt at 08:52 and arriving in St. Moritz at 16:37. Call it eight hours either way.
The 2027 spring has a gap worth knowing about. The Rhine Gorge is closed for engineering from 17 April to 2 May 2027, with a replacement bus between Chur and Disentis, and the Excellence Class carriage does not run from 16 April to 3 May 2027. The operator has done something similar in March 2026, so treat the second half of April as the month to avoid for this particular train.
Winter is the more dramatic season for the Oberalp Pass, which is reliably under snow from November to April, but the days are short. Leaving Zermatt at 08:52 in December, you will cross the pass in good light and arrive in St. Moritz at dusk. In June the whole route is in daylight. The timetable is the same in both, so the choice is about light rather than logistics.
[PAU: add personal note on which season you would choose for Excellence Class and why.]
First class versus Excellence Class, honestly
The scenery is identical. The panoramic windows are the same shape in both carriages, the train stops at the same stations, and the Landwasser Viaduct does not look any better for having a sommelier beside you. What Excellence Class changes is everything that is not the view.
| First class | Excellence Class | |
|---|---|---|
| Seat | Reserved, window not guaranteed | Guaranteed window, nobody on the aisle |
| Carriage | Shared, full in high season | Twenty passengers, own crew |
| Food | Optional menu, pre-ordered or bought on board | Five courses with wine, included |
| Drinks | Pay as you go | Champagne, wine, soft drinks and coffee included, plus the bar |
| Service | Trolley and dining staff | Dedicated concierge, platform check-in, luggage handled |
| Route | Any section | Full Zermatt to St. Moritz only |
| Reservation | CHF 54, opens 93 days out | CHF 590, whole season opens in October |
| Cost of the day, 2027 | ≈ CHF 338 plus lunch | ≈ CHF 874 |
Three honest observations. First, the gap is about CHF 500 per person once you add a lunch and a glass of wine in first class, not CHF 590. Second, the five courses are served through the middle of the day, which is also the middle of the route, so you will eat your way through part of the Rhine Gorge; the crew pace it well, but a fork in your hand is not the same as a camera. Third, in May, June, late September and early October, first class is often quiet enough that a window seat is easy to come by, and the case for paying the supplement weakens. In July, August and over the Christmas period, when the first class carriages are full and the aisle seat is a real possibility, the guarantee alone starts to justify the money.
Who should pay for it
Book Excellence Class if the Glacier Express is the day you will remember the trip by. An anniversary, a significant birthday, a retirement, the one journey you promised yourselves. Book it if you are two people who want the day to be the event rather than the transit, and if you are doing the train once and will not be back. And book it if you are travelling at peak season and the idea of a shared table or an aisle seat for eight hours bothers you, because at that point the supplement is buying certainty, which is worth more in August than in May.
Who should not
Do not pay for it if the view is what you came for. First class delivers the view in full, and CHF 590 per person is a night in a very good hotel, or the Gornergrat and the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise for two with change. Do not pay for it if you are only riding part of the route, because you cannot. Do not pay for it with young children, who each need a full reservation and are unlikely to thank you for five courses. Do not pay for it if your dates might move, since the reservation is not refundable. And do not pay for it if your trip already has a long lunch in it every day; eight hours of eating and drinking is a lot.
On my Swiss Wellness Grand Tour the Glacier Express day runs from St. Moritz to Zermatt in first class with the panoramic seats reserved, and Excellence Class is the train upgrade I offer on it. Most of my guests take first class and spend the difference on the spa; the ones celebrating something take Excellence. Both are right.
The verdict
Excellence Class is the best single day you can buy on a scheduled train in Europe, and it is not cheap. At about CHF 874 per person for 2027 dates it costs more than twice the first class day, for the same landscape and a different experience of it. If you are marking an occasion or travelling in high season, pay it and book in October for the following year. If you are travelling in the shoulder months and the Alps are the point, first class with a window seat and a pre-ordered lunch is the better use of the money.