Deutschland Ticket

About your decision to purchase the D-Ticket... "Extensive" implies long-distance trains (like the ICE, ICE, EC, RJ trains) which are not covered by the D-Ticket.

To your original point, yes, people outside the EU can buy the D-Ticket.

Many have reported an easier time buying through MVV, the Munich Public Transport site.

Others who have successfully done the D-Ticket will probably chime in with details.

DB sells the DT only via direct debiting from an account within the EU. Please select another vendor, there are many. Or, even better, follow the advice of The Man in Seat 61: https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-germany.htm

@SLA
Can one purchase the Deutschland Ticket after they get to Germany at a DB ticket office? That's the big advantage of a Länder Ticket like the Bayern Ticket. What are the downsides of buying the D-Ticket once you get to Germany?

@Lee
No, the DT is no longer available as a paper ticket, as it was in its early days, but only as a QR code in a smart phone app or as a chip card (available in the DB Reisezentrum), but the latter has a delivery time of about 2 weeks and you need a German bank account for direct debiting and a German postal address for delivery. So the only practical option for overseas visitors is to buy tickets in a smartphone app or to save a ticket bought online in the Apple or Google Wallet on their smartphone (paper printouts are not legal). And it doesn't matter at all which country you do this from.

As far as the providers are concerned: The simplest way for visitors from overseas is certainly the one now recommended by the “Man in Seat 61”, namely buying from the Dutch ticket reseller Tranzer, because they cancel the ticket for the customer immediately after purchase, so you don't have to worry about accidentally falling into the subscription trap. They charge a supplement of €2.70. Of course, you can also do the two steps buy + cancel yourself. Of all the apps I've tried so far, the most straightforward is “Mainzer Mobilität” (unfortunately only in German), with Bremen Fahrplaner (also in English, also recommended by Man in Seat 61) in second place. The MVV app, which seems to be a favorite on this forum, is only in the middle of the field for me, because setting it up is much more complicated than for the above-mentioned apps. But of course it can be much more complicated: for example, it's hard to imagine anything more clumsy than our local Augsburg AVV app.

Thank you very much for your responses! The information that you provide me was very helpful, especially the “The Man in Seat 61” website. We are planning our trip in October, so we are waiting for the tickets to be available. Right now Tranzer Europe is selling tickets for August and September; other providers that I checked only offer tickets for the present month. I will wait until October is available. Thank you again!

This is great information! My wife and I will be traveling to Germany in September. I've been researching the train options until I've gone cross-eyed. :)

Since we'll be traveling to the Rhine region and Bavaria (Munich, Füssen), I had been planning on getting the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket and the Bayern Ticket or the Regio Ticket Allgau-Schwaben for train travel in those regions. But it seems like the Deutschland Ticket (using the techniques suggested by the Man in Seat 61) would cover Regional trains for both of those regions, at a lower total price. Seems too good to be true! Am I missing something?

Deutschland Ticket for two people = Eur98

Rheinland-Pfalz ticket Eur35 for two people x 2 days = Eur70
Bayern Ticket Eur39 for two people x 2 days = Eur78
TOTAL for regional tickets = Eur148 (or more, if we need additional days)

(I found out that travel between Mainz in the Rheinland and Munich requires an ICE, but I figure we can just buy that individually.)

Interesting.
I tried to purchase a pair of these tickets in Frankfurt two days ago at the DB counter. I was told to use "the App" to buy them. OK, I had my ICE ticket so I decided to wait until I was here in Erfurt to do it. I have the app installed on my phone.
Yesterday I spent a good deal of time trying to make that purchase. Because the United States is not a listed country option, the app kept tossing my application. I decide to take this on today or at the HBF. I looked at the app again a few minutes ago. It no longer lists the ticket as a purchase option. I cannot find a way to refresh the app to bring it back. I was about to try uninstalling it but this thread makes me realize that that will be a waste of time.
The way to get around all of this follows:
Use europe.tranzer.com/ticket-product/73

The DT is a bust

Too bad the DT was a failure for you; thousands of others use it with success. But since the DT is not a tourist offer, it requires some (modest) effort and a little information to repurpose it for tourist needs.

First of all, the DT is not a DB offer (on the contrary, DB opposed the introduction of the DT for a long time), but the federal states and their transport associations. So there is no reason to fixate on DB.

Secondly, it is not possible for visitors from overseas to buy the Dt from DB anyway, as DB only accepts direct debit as payment. Instead, you buy it from one of the carriers that also offer a proper app.

Thirdly, information: The Man in seat 61 offers everything you need, but there are also numerous tips for successful use on this forum, e.g. from several Forum members who were satisfied with the MVV app.

But it seems like the Deutschland Ticket... would cover Regional trains for both of those regions, at a lower total price. Seems too good to be true!

The D-Ticket in fact covers all regional train travel in all regions. Before the D-Ticket, each of the many individual transportation authorities in Germany offered similar products by subscription to some degree or another. So someone living in Mainz, for example, could commute to a job in Frankfurt affordably with a "Monatskarte" or monthly RMV ticket. The offers varied widely from authority zone to authority zone and also within individual authority zones; the complexity and variety were often confusing. Nonetheless, a senior citizen in the VRM zone could travel within the VRM zone quite cheaply (€71.20/mo.) Younger VRM commuters subscribed at monthly rates upwards of €200. It wasn't dirt cheap, but it was still cheaper than buying and maintaining a car, and more reasonable than buying individual tickets.

The D-Ticket simplified and cheapified everything - travel across authority zones, at any time, no matter your age, for €49/mo. This huge drop in travel costs of course made many Germans very happy; the old subscriptions might still be on offer, but everyone and everyone else now uses the D-Ticket. Travel distances and the ridership numbers have of course increased. And now, TOURISTS like us who knew nothing about monthly subscriptions previously are getting in on the D-T goodies.

All of this additional pressure on the train system does not come with money from heaven to pay for the discounted prices and additional costs (more trains, more maintenance for example.) Germany is in an ongoing struggle to fund the system properly. DB, which already has a lot of deferred track maintenance, struggles to get the job done. On-time performance is suffering, the bathrooms are messed up... what riders are saving in Euros is being paid for with missed connections, overcrowding, and other inconveniences. In the long run, like most things that seem too good to be true, the D-Ticket, as it is currently priced, probably is as well.

Use the MVV app to purchase and your experience should go pretty smoothly.

To be more clear. Unless a US citizen has a European address, the Deutschland ticket cannot be purchased directly from the DT app.
Information offered here has made it sound as though it is possible to purchase it with the app. As ejtraut has reported, you cannot.
I was able to purchase these using the link I provided in my previous post.

It is a bit frustrating to see well meaning individuals make what is actually a very simple process complicated by giving too much, and often, conflicting information.

One needed to purchase through regional transport app, but it is good for all of Germany. Several apps work. I found MVV easy to use.

Just a tip about buying the Deutschland ticket. I have just bought mine using the HVV switch app and you only pay pro rata for your first month. This means that I have just paid €19.60 for a Deutschland ticket that will start from September 19th (our arrival day in Hamburg) instead of €49-. I was able to pay for my ticket using PayPal.