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Old May 29th, 2004, 10:46 PM
tim
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Default German rail fares


"Professional Dad" wrote in message
om...
..... The advantage to arriving and buying the
tickets is if our plane is late in which case we could miss our booked
train. However, if it's cheaper to buy the tickets on-line I'll do
that and risk the plane being on time. (They always are unless you
really need them to be...)...


I am trying to help my parents with some similar travel plans. They
will travel from FRA airport to Hannover on an ICE train. I'm not sure
if anyone really addressed this in their replies to your posting. What
if you DO book a ticket in advance and your plane IS late?


If you have booked a standard priced ticket or one with a Bahncard
discount you can use it on any other train .

If you have booked a 'discount' ticket based upon using a specific
train you can change it by paying a surcharge that may take the price
up to more than the standard price This might only be possible if
you do it before the booked departure time, I don't know (and
I can't find the new rules)

Can that
ticket be used on a later train? Is there a service charge for
switching to a later run? Is there the risk that a later train is
booked and you can't switch?


DB don't have a "seating only" policy, if a train is full you can
stand, sit in the aisle, whatever (if you really want to)

Also, they plan to make it a round trip back to Frankfurt. I didn't
notice anything on the Die Bahn site about getting a discount for
booking the round trip ticket. Is the discount built into the price
they show already or do I have to hunt around for it?


Having just tried, you are presented with two fares: the
normal fare and the discount one so you can select either.

Personally if I were buying a ticket to connect with an
international arrival I would forgo the discount and pay the
full fare. If you just paid 500+ euro for an incoming flight
it seems stupid to add a lot of arrro onto the journey for
a 30 euor saving

BTW you get a group discount for more than one person
so don't forget to book all tickets together.

Having said all this. Can they actually send the tickets
to another country from the web site?

tim




Any help is appreciated...ProDad