Finding Rail Ticket Prices

I don't know from where you got these tickets prices, but the Deutsche Bahn website shows EUR 13 for a regularly bought ticket on the ICE from Frankfurt Hbf to Frankfurt Airport, and it's EUR 4,50 with the S-Bahn. The OEBB website quotes some EUR 45 for the trip from Innsbruck to Salzburg, and a mere EUR 14 when bought in advance.

Do you know what is the exact web address I should use to correctly check on ticket prices? When I type in German Rail, or Deutsch bahn, many websites come up and give me differing prices. Help!

Here is the DB site and the Austrian website

For Deutsche Bahn:

https://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/

See regular, full, 2nd-class fares (converted to US dollars) on our maps at https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/cost-maps. Those show you Innsbruck-Salzburg at $50 per person, one way, 2nd class, on a fast train. It sounds to me like you've entered two people in your price search.

Deep ticket discounts are possible in both Germany and Austria if you're ready to lock in specific travel dates and times in advance. Switzerland is different.

Rail passes offer complete hop-on flexibility in these countries, where seat reservations are optional, and can also cover lake boats or provide lift discounts in Switzerland.

The DB link for German pricing is the same one that we recommend for train schedules everywhere.

Innsbruck to Salzburg is as low as 9 Euro through oebb.at, the website of the official Austrian rail company. At this price, you buy a sparschiene ticket online which is for a certain train at a certain time. Do not use Rail Europe ever. Rail passes are a luxury item and never a good deal. Read this article for excellent info:

http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm#railpass-or-point-to-point-tickets

Joy, you've been posting on this website since 2007. Didn't you ever read not to use RailEurope for prices. RailEurope shows the price from Frankfurt Hbf to Frankfurt Airport on an ICE as 35€ (in 1st class, no less). That must be where you got that price. The S-Bahn from Frankfurt Hbf to the closer in Regional Bahnhof at the airport is one minute faster and only cost $5.30 (4,65€). Plus, you can buy the Hbf to Flughafen regbf ticket right up to train time for that price instead of getting a non-exchangeable ticket from R/E.

Also, Innsbruck to Salzburg by RailJet from Austrian Rail, 45,50€ ($51.84, online or at the station). That's for a standard (fully flexible) ticket, about 2 hours by RailJet. I didn't find the Sparschiene ticket. From the Bahn you can get a Sparpreis ticket, an hour slower with a change in Rosenheim for $27.34 (24€) per person. From R/E it's at least $76 in 2nd class.

Lee, I have never read not to use that website. I stand corrected and will try to do better in the future. Grin!

"I have never read not to use that website."

No criticism of you, but I am surprised because the warning comes up often. Although a subsidiary of French Rail, RailEurope is just a travel agency. They resell tickets at a marked up price to cover their expenses. Furthermore, they don't cover all the trains in Europe, just the ones for which they want to sell tickets, usually the fastest and most expensive ones. Your best bet is to go to the individual country websites, but they are counting on that being too difficult for you. The problem with using individual country websites is that, for international train, it's sometime difficult to get fares.

A lot of times there are special fares, regional passes, advance purchase discounts that you won't normally see on any website, but travelers experienced with that country know where to find them. Your best bet is to ask here. Or come out to our 3rd Saturday Denver group meeting.

I apologize if I am being too much of a bother to some of you, but here is my dilemma. The DB Site will not give me fares. It says "Fare not Available". And the OEBB site comes up really strange; not at all the way I remember it from past trips. I can only check fares within a few Austrian cities from a drop down menu. I wanted to check the fare from Salzburg to Rothenburg, De. Please be kind folks. Maybe it's some security setting on my computer, but I'm really struggling here.

I looked at the Deutsche Bahn website for Salzburg to Rothenburg OdT and Sparpreis tickets were 29 EUR for August 10, the farthest out you can buy now. Journey takes 4 3/4 hours at the best.
Since Salzburg and Rothenburg are both inside the Bavaria transport district, you can use a Bayern ticket for 23 EUR in 5 1/2 hours with only 3 changes.

Joy, I just went to www.bahn.de I entered: from Salzburg Hbf to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Mo, 05.09.16, ab: 09:00 and it said: "Verkauf ab 06.06.2016 möglich" (sales possible from 6/6/16). So I entered Mo, 08.08.16, ab: 09:00 and it gave me trains at 09:15, 10:15, 11:15 and 12:15, all at €29. For example:

Salzburg Hbf ab 09:15, München Hbf an 11:06
München Hbf ab11:20, Nürnberg Hbf an 12:30
Nürnberg Hbf ab 12:36, Ansbach an 13:06
Ansbach ab 13:11, Steinach(b Rothenburg ob der Tauber) an 13:31
Steinach(b Rothenburg ob der Tauber) ab 13:35, Rothenburg ob der Tauber an 13:49

If you are looking in September you can get times, but no prices. But the prices won't change.

I was not looking at prices in September, although that is when we will be traveling. I was making up dates as early as next week using the same day of the week that we will need. For me it says "Prices not available." It shows a shopping cart with the red slash. The key at the bottom of the page says this means "not bookable by internet". I am totally frustrated by this. I like to research all my options and make an intelligent decision.

Joy, I don't think May 21st (3rd Saturday) can come soon enough. Panera has Wifi. I'll bring my netbook and we'll see if you can reproduce the problem. You keep saying you get these "not available" messages and we try what we think are the same things and don't get those messages. You need to be real specific about what you tried, like To:, From:, date, time, so we can try exactly the same thing.

Yes, the Austrian OBB site does look different, as they redesigned it a month or two ago. We're still getting used to it, too. Most railway sites can't sell a ticket that includes connections made in another country (the first leg departing their country yes, but second or third leg no). For instance, if you searched for Salzburg-Rothenburg ob der Tauber on the Austrian site instead of the German, that would be a reason for no ticket prices found.

Joy, what tickets are you looking for when you get that message, "Not bookable on the Internet"? You won't find some tickets, like Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof to Frankfurt airport by regional trains and S-Bahn, sold by the Bahn. These tickets are sold by the local metro system (in the case of Frankfurt, the RMV), not the Bahn.