Swiss Transfer Ticket

A Swiss Transfer Ticket will be much more expensive than point-to-point tickets. According to the Swiss Rail site, the fare for Basel-Grindelwald (one connection at Interlaken Ost) is 33.20 CHF.

It's an 11 hrs train ride (London dp 5.40, 7.01, 7.54, 9.12, 10.57) and most probably more expensive than an easyjet flight to Basel plus a train ride from there to Grindelwald.

Alas the 33.20 CHF fare is the 'half-fare', which means in practice the full fare will be 132.80 CHF (return). This is a bit more than the Swiss Transfer ticket would cost, but close enough that it would likely be easier to buy the point-to-point ticket and save any issues that the Transfer ticket might present. It's a little irritating that the 'half fare' box is automatically sepected when you are given ticket prices. The 165 CHF cost of getting a 'half fare' card makes it uneconomic for a one-off visit however.

neckervd - I started off with a flying/train option, however a) the cost of flight (about £125 when all necessary 'extras' are accounted for), airport parking and rail transfer within Switzerland and b) the total check-in/travel/transfer time, mean that the train option will work out around £15 more and take approx. 2-3hrs more.

This is close enough (in both respects) to make a yawntastic flight/transfer into a far more interesting Eurostar/TGV/ICE journey which will allow a pleasurable coffee and coissant in Paris along the way.

If I was getting a package deal, the flight/ropey coach transfer would undoubtedly work out far cheaper (as I've found in previous years), however this isnt the case in this instance.

Sorry, I didn't realize that the half-fare price automatically came up as the default fare.

This map shows that the Swiss Transfer Ticket will indeed cover your ride from Basel SBB to Grindelwald and return.

Check via TGV from Paris to Lausanne and then from there to Grindelwald via SBB.

You are right: a easyjet flight from Gatwick to Basel and back costs about 125 GBP with 1 piece of checked in luggage and credit card booking fee.
I don't know how much costs the best deal by train.

Do you intend to stay at Grindelwald only? In the case you would use some buses or mountain railways, the half fare card might be a good deal. Fares of the mountain railways in the Grindelwald area:
http://www.jungfrau.ch/en/tourism/travel-information/tickets-fares/grindelwald/

You should be able to book a through ticket from London to Basel easily, for example from Rail Europe or from www.tgveurope.com . The advantage of this is that, in the event of a delay in your first train, you wouldn't lose the money for the second train (assuming you would be booking a restricted ticket).

The Basel to Grindelwald part doesn't need to be booked, because the price is set and there are (generally) no advance booking discounts.

A Swiss Transfer ticket is just a piece of paper where you write in (or have printed) the date- it will be no problem to start from Basel SBB which is, as you say, an entry point to Switzerland.

Greencelery, do not suggest using Rail Europe to anyone. They are simply an agency who add a mark-up to prices. Advice to not use them has been given many times here on the TT.

Read here as an example: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2076408&messageID=18684049#18684049