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Berlin Welcome Card: 24 Hour Cycle vs. Days

Posted by (California, USA) on

I notice that the Berlin Welcome Card is denominated in 48-hour and 72-hour passes; then it switches to the term, "days;" i.e., 4 days, 5 days, 6-day passes.

I get the impression that the six-day pass means (6) 24-hour cycles. I hope I am formulating my question correctly.

For example, if I were to validate a pass on Monday at 3:00 p.m., would it expire on Saturday at 11:59 pm or Sunday at 2:59 pm?

Example - a 6-Day Pass.
1 - Mon - validated at 3:00 pm
2-Tues
3 - Wed
4 - Thurs
5 - Fri
6 - Sat (expires on 11:59 pm on Saturday.)

Or, Example - 6-Days of 24-hour cycles
1 - Monday, validate at 3:00 pm to Tues
2.- Tues - to Wed
3. - Wed - to Thurs
4 - Thurs - to Fri
5 - Fri to Sat
6 - Sat to Sunday, expires on Sunday at 2:59 pm

I could not find an answer to this precise question on any of the websites.

Do any of you have wisdom to share? Thank you.

Posted by
27095 posts

I found this text in the FAQs:

"Your advantage: unlike the Berlin day ticket, the Berlin Welcome Card is a flexible ticket, in other words, after validation at the transport companies’ (bus & rail) designated machines prior to starting the journey, the printed tickets are valid for the purchased ticket period (48h, 72h or 4, 5, 6 days). Online tickets do not have to be separately validated before being used for the first time. Their period of validity depends on the specified travel date and the time on the online ticket. As regards tickets for 4, 5 or 6 days, the Berlin Welcome Card expires on the last day of validity at 12am."

It appears that the 48- and 72-hour passes are the only ones that operate by the clock; the longer passes seem to be calendar-based. As I interpret the posted info, if you validate a 6-day pass on Monday afternoon, it will expire at 11:59 PM/midnight on Saturday.

Are you thinking about getting the pass that includes Museum Island? I had a couple of issues with that in 2015: It conferred no skip-the-line privileges, and the lines could be an hour long or longer. I believe there is a separate arrangement that avoids the line. I don't remember whether there's a separate MuseumInseln pass or it's a matter of buying museum tickets in advance.

Also in 2015, if there was a special exhibition at one of the MuseumInseln museums, the pass was totally worthless. You didn't just pay the extra charge attributable to the special exhibition; you paid the full cost of regular admission + special exhibition. This made the MuseumInseln add-on a very, very bad deal for me.

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