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German rail fares
We need some advice from someone with experience of German railways
and their fare structure. Hopefully someone on the newsgroup can help. We need to travel from Frankfurt Airport to Villingen (Schwarz) with a 24hr stop in Heidelberg. We've checked out the trains on the excellent German Rail website and found a suitable service for our purposes, and also the price of the ticket. What we don't know is: Would the price be the same if we just turn up at the airport station and buy the tickets there, or am I getting a special deal on-line? Our date of travel is three weeks away. 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...) By the way, the service I'm looking at is the regional service via Mannheim, and the on-line price one way for two adults is E55.20 Anyone have experience of this situation? Help apprectaied, Paul New Zealand. |
#3
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German rail fares
Paul schrieb:
We need some advice from someone with experience of German railways and their fare structure. Hopefully someone on the newsgroup can help. We That is 2 persons? need to travel from Frankfurt Airport to Villingen (Schwarz) with a 24hr stop in Heidelberg. We've checked out the trains on the excellent German Rail website and found a suitable service for our purposes, and also the price of the ticket. What we don't know is: Would the price be the same if we just turn up at the airport station and buy the tickets there, Yes. or am I getting a special deal on-line? Our date of travel is three weeks away. 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...) By the way, the service I'm looking at is the regional service via Mannheim, and the on-line price one way for two adults is E55.20 Anyone have experience of this situation? Airport to Heidelberg is 22,50 for two adults on regional trains. Baden-Württenberg-Ticket valid after 9 a.m. on weekdays is 21 EUR an will be valid for up to 5 persons from Heidelberg to Villingen on regional trains. Regards, ULF |
#4
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German rail fares
"Paul" schrieb im Newsbeitrag m... We need some advice from someone with experience of German railways and their fare structure. Hopefully someone on the newsgroup can help. We need to travel from Frankfurt Airport to Villingen (Schwarz) with a 24hr stop in Heidelberg. We've checked out the trains on the excellent German Rail website and found a suitable service for our purposes, and also the price of the ticket. What we don't know is: Would the price be the same if we just turn up at the airport station and buy the tickets there, or am I getting a special deal on-line? The price for normal (open) tickets are the same. Only if you buy return tickets online in advance (min. 3 days) and for fixed booked trains (!) you CAN get a discount of 25% or 50%. Our date of travel is three weeks away. 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...) By the way, the service I'm looking at is the regional service via Mannheim, and the on-line price one way for two adults is E55.20 The price with using the ICE from Frankfurt Airport to Mannheim and IC from Heidelberg to Villingen would be 68,40. You can buy these tickets online (and print them on your printer) as these are all normal tickets. Valid 2 days and you can use any train of the covered train types on this route. If you buy online seat reservation is included for free, however only possible for the ICE and IC trains - not for the regional ones. My suggestion. Direct ICE train from Frankfurt Airport to Mannheim. Change there for Heidelberg. EUR 33,- for 2 adults 2nd class. With other trains you have to travle first to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main railway station). ICE is also nice, esp. if you've never travelled with a high speed train (not really that high speed on this part). Heidelberg - Villingen a) Mo-Fr past 9am Baden-Württemberg Ticket EUR 21,- All local trains in Baden-Württemberg from 9am on till 3am next day. http://www.bahn.de/d_regional/view/m...ike/baw/11.pdf Valid for up to 5 people travelling together. Also valid for public transport (trams, buses) in Heidelberg (VRN). http://www.vrn.de/karten_plaene/lini...heidelberg.pdf and in Villingen (VSB/VGVS) http://www.vgvs.de/liniennetzplan.jpg You can buy this ticket from any VRN or DB ticket machine in Heidelberg. b) Sa, Su HappyWeekendTicket EUR 28,- Same, except it's valid from midnight on and valid for whole Germany. |
#5
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German rail fares
...... 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? 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? 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? Any help is appreciated...ProDad |
#6
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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 |
#7
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German rail fares
Thanks to everyone who replied. With your help we've now worked out
what to do. We'll book an ICE train direct from Frankfurt Airport to Mannheim and change there for Heidelberg, then buy a Baden-Wurttemberg ticket for the next day to get from Heidelberg to Villingen. This is cheaper than a straightforward rail ticket and can also be used on buses and trams in the cities. Thanks again - would never have known about that option without this newsgroup. Regards Paul NZ (Paul) wrote in message om... We need some advice from someone with experience of German railways and their fare structure. Hopefully someone on the newsgroup can help. We need to travel from Frankfurt Airport to Villingen (Schwarz) with a 24hr stop in Heidelberg. We've checked out the trains on the excellent German Rail website and found a suitable service for our purposes, and also the price of the ticket. What we don't know is: Would the price be the same if we just turn up at the airport station and buy the tickets there, or am I getting a special deal on-line? Our date of travel is three weeks away. 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...) By the way, the service I'm looking at is the regional service via Mannheim, and the on-line price one way for two adults is E55.20 Anyone have experience of this situation? Help apprectaied, Paul New Zealand. |
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