2023-10-04 07:31:52
Traveling by train can be expensive. The savings tickets from Deutsche Bahn can be correspondingly tempting. However, in order to get the discount, travelers have to accept restrictions, such as cancellation options. And passing it on to third parties is rarely possible if you cannot use the ticket yourself.
What ticket categories are there?
The railway differentiates between different ticket categories. The most important are Flex price, saver price and super saver price – sorted from most expensive to cheapest category.
Biggest difference: With the flex price you are not tied to a specific train on the route you have booked. If you oversleep, you take the next train. This is not possible with saver fare tickets; they are tied to the long-distance trains you have booked. There are also differences in the rules for cancellation and exchange, but more on that later.
When are the discounted tickets available?
Savings prices and Super savings prices In theory, they can be booked a maximum of 180 days – i.e. around half a year – before the date of travel. In practice, it depends on the activation of the new timetables. Every year on the second Sunday in December there is a “big” timetable change, in summer there is another “small” timetable change on the second Sunday in June.
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Nevertheless, if you know in advance that you will be traveling by train on a certain day, you should take care of it as soon as possible. The discounted tickets are limited: first come, first save.
What applies to Christmas?
The time around the Christmas holidays is one of the busiest times of the year for travel. Here in particular it is worth getting there as early as possible. However, the tickets cannot yet be booked.
The reason: The new timetable year begins on December 10th and bookings will start soon. Anyone who wants to travel cheaply by train around Christmas should mark October 11th in red on their calendar. From then on, bookings will also be possible for Christmas, according to Deutsche Bahn on the short message service X.
“It will be five months of chaos and catastrophe for everyone on the move.”
40 highly polluted routes are to be completely closed for around five months each by 2030 and then completely renovated. The federal government is making almost 40 billion euros available for this purpose. In an interview, Karl-Peter Naumann from the Pro Bahn passenger association talks about the restrictions.
Another savings tip: If the timetable change entails price increases, these always only come into force on the deadline – that would be December 10th for the 2023/2024 winter timetable. Anyone who books a ticket by then, even for trips after the deadline, will still get it under the old conditions, according to a railway spokeswoman.
How are the prices determined?
According to Deutsche Bahn, super saver tickets for long-distance transport are available for 2nd class from 17.90 euros, depending on availability, and during promotional periods for short routes from 9.90 euros. In the best case scenario, you can get saver price tickets in 2nd class from 21.90 euros. Only: Anyone who searches online often notices that the savings prices sometimes hardly deserve the “Spar” bonus – some of them cost 79 or even 99 euros.
The reason: How cheap the saver tickets are depends largely on the occupancy and demand for the route on the desired travel day – if many buy them, this causes the prices to rise more quickly. For example, on busy days such as Friday and Sunday or at popular travel times such as around Christmas.
The length of the route and the train category also have an influence. Tickets for an IC are usually cheaper than for an ICE.
This also means that the booking lead time alone is not decisive for whether you can still get cheap tickets. On routes with little demand, rail travelers may also get bargains if they look for connections with little advance notice.
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Two more tips from Deutsche Bahn:
1. The best price search in the app or on the Bahn-Website – cheaper off-peak trains are often displayed automatically.
2. It may also be worthwhile to uncheck “Show fastest connections” in the search options. Because longer connections are often cheaper.
In general, if there is no cheap offer available from Deutsche Bahn, you should always consider other providers on the track and on the road – such as long-distance bus companies. Comparing prices can generally be worthwhile.
What if I can’t travel?
The train’s more expensive flex-price tickets can be purchased free of charge until before the day of travel and for a fee of 19 euros on the day of travel cancel or exchange.
A saver price ticket cannot be rebooked, but can be canceled up to the day of travel for a fee of 10 euros. There is neither a rebooking nor a cancellation option for super saver prices.
Exception: Tickets purchased digitally can usually be canceled free of charge up to twelve hours after booking – regardless of the category. The immediate cancellation goes through the customer account bahn.dein the DB Navigator app and without a customer account via the order search.
Can the tickets be passed on?
Usually not. In general, if you buy them online, they are personalized, so the name is on the ticket. After booking, it is no longer possible to transfer it to another person.
And since October 1st, at least for saver tickets, they can only be sold in travel centers and agencies if you provide a mobile phone number or email address. The new regulation does not initially apply to purchases from a vending machine. However, only a very small proportion of saver tickets on long-distance transport are sold this way.
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The railway justified the new regulation by saying that it wanted to better inform customers about the journey: for example, they could be informed about delays via SMS or email.
So what does the new regulation mean?
In future, the traveler’s name will appear on saver tickets purchased in travel centers or from agencies. Only he or she can drive it. A transfer to third parties is therefore not possible. When checking tickets, train attendants can also ask for ID in order to compare names, according to a railway spokeswoman.
In principle, non-personalized tickets can also be used by someone other than yourself – so passing them on is possible. What is prohibited is resale.
Good to know: The new regulation for providing contact details when purchasing in travel centers and via agencies does not yet apply to flex-price tickets from October 1st.
Can I buy tickets – even discounted ones – for third parties?
Yes. But then it is important to indicate the name of this third party: this will then appear on the ticket.
And if you book online, you should forward the ticket, which the railway sends as a PDF document by email, to the person or print it out for them.
Because: Anyone who shows the ticket on their smartphone must have it ready either directly in the app or as a PDF. A screenshot of the ticket is not enough. This is also stated in the railway’s conditions of carriage.
What else threatens from Deutsche Bahn?
If inspectors still allow screenshots of a ticket to go through, this is purely a gesture of goodwill, the local transport arbitration board at the NRW consumer advice center makes clear. “So travelers shouldn’t rely on that.”
If you notice during the inspection that you can only show a screenshot, you may have to pay a so-called additional fare charge of 60 euros.
After all: In such and other cases – for example if the smartphone no longer has a battery and therefore cannot be shown – travelers can still submit the valid ticket later online at “DB-Fahrpreisnacherfrage.de”. Then only a processing fee is due.
If you can, save yourself such stress in advance and make sure you have the ticket ready as a PDF. You can be on the safe side if you have a printed ticket with you.
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