Has anyone tried to book a Rail & Fly ticket from Condor airlines recently? I have a mid-May flight to Frankfurt and can't figure out how to book the train tickets on Condor's website. When I called an agent she said she didn't see it as an option for me right now, that maybe it had something to do with my flight arrival time (12:30 p.m.), which makes no sense. Do I just need to wait until I'm closer to my flight? Even though their website says I could have bought rail tickets at the time of booking! Frustrating.
Posted by
Berlin
2342 posts
If you received rail voucher code(s) for Deutsche Bahn you can follow up and book connections on this page.
There is also a short tutorial PDF in German language. DeepL will help you translating.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Posted by
Wengen
1795 posts
According to the info here:
https://www.condor.com/us/book-plan/extras/railfly.jsp
you just add the rail&fly to your booking, and then you receive a voucher, that you use to get your ticket. And you can do that until a few hours before your flight. Looks easy to me.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19115 posts
When I called an agent
Was that a Condor agent or an independent travel agent. Did she try to sell you a rail pass instead (hint)?
Posted by
OP
Bellingham, WA
12 posts
I finally figured it out. The reason it's not available is because I booked the tickets through Alaska Airlines. They use "GDS" system (according to Condor agent), which does not have affiliation with DB rail and therefore doesn't allow the Rail & Fly ticket. I spoke to three Condor agents and one Alaska agent to finally learn this. So... if you use Alaska miles to fly Condor to Germany, no discount train tickets.
Posted by
Green Bay
20254 posts
So where are you going when you get to Frankfurt airport?
Posted by
OP
Bellingham, WA
12 posts
First to Regensburg for a couple nights, then on to Passau to start a bike tour on the Danube ending in Vienna.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19115 posts
The one thing I would not advise is for you to pre-purchase a "Spar-Preis" (Savings Fare) ticket to use on arrival at FRA since you never know how late the flight might be. If your trans-Atlantic flight is late arriving, and you miss your assigned train, your Spar-Preis ticket would be worthless.
A full-fare, direct or one-stop ticket via ICE to Regensburg will cost you 76€ - 80€ and the trip will take about 3Hr 40min.
If you are willing to take a little longer and make two more changes, you can do the trip by regional trains and passes for about 40€ with a 10,55€ RMV ticket to Kahl (first stop in Bavaria) and a Bayern-Ticket (29,-€) from there. If you take the S-Bahn to Frankfurt Hbf and regional train from there with changes in Würzburg and Nürnberg, the trip will take about 5H30min, less than 2 hours more.