Rail transport Regensburg, Ger to Salzburg, Austria. Return to Munich 5 days later

Trainline is a third party vendor. I much prefer to book directly with the relevant train company, either online or through their apps. Bahn for Germany, SBB as you note for Switzerland, OEBB for Austria.

https://www.sbb.ch/en

https://www.oebb.at/en/

https://int.bahn.de for bookings and

for more general information the Man in Seat 61:
https://www.seat61.com

You do know that the Half Fare Card from SBB is only valid on trains within Switzerland, right?

Regensburg to Salzburg can be done with a Bayern Ticket. 29 EUR for the 1st person and 10 EUR for each additional person with up to 5 people traveling together. Regional trains only after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends. Same for return to Munich. You can buy it out of a vending machine day of travel.

Do as Sam instructs. Bayern Ticket, regional trains only.

http://www.munich-touristinfo.de/Bavaria-Ticket.htm

There are no direct trains of any kind between Regensburg and Salzburg. You will have 1 or 2 changes of train depending on the time of day you wish to travel.

The DB site will provide a personal travel schedule. Besides the regional trains, there are also high-speed trains (ICE, EC, RJX) which cannot be used with the Bayern Ticket and might appear on such schedules. So you need to EXCLUDE these trains from your search to find journeys you can make with the Bayern Ticket. Simply click on "mode of transport" then select "local transport only", then hit search to find doable schedules. RE, RB, ALX RE, and BRB RE are regional train types that can be boarded with the Bayern Ticket.

There is no point to buying these tickets in advance. They are the same price at the station - from a ticket machine - as you see online. Once you buy them, they are non-refundable. So buy them on the day of travel or the day before if that's more convenient for you.

There are no seat reservations to mess with either. Just get on the train and find a seat.

The Trainline app appears to permit transfers from a Bayern to a high speed (rail jet) train in Munich and not cost too much. (Alx to Rjx) and saves an hr in time.
Or am I missing somthing………

If you can live with a fixed schedule with nonrefundable train specific tickets, sure. You'd find the same information at https://int.bahn.de/en

The journeys which include those high-speed trains are what I referred to here:

"...there are also high-speed trains (ICE, EC, RJX) which cannot be used with the Bayern Ticket and might appear on such schedules."

I do not use the "Trainline" so I do not know whether you will be able to exclude said trains with their site (for use with the Bayern Ticket.)

I am not seeing the huge discrepancy (1 hour??) that you say you are seeing betwen the regional-only journeys and the "high-speed" journeys, not in the morning hours anyway... Random date chosen...

7:51 - 10:55 (includes high-speed) = 3 hr 4 minutes
8:26 - 11:59 (includes high-speed) = 3 hr 33 minutes
9:51 - 12:58 (includes high-speed) = 3 hr 7 minutes

Bayern Ticket option:
9:51 - 13:17 (regional only) = 3 hr 26 minutes
10:46 - 13:55 (regional only) = 3 hr 9 minutes

What you might not know... the saver fares for high-speed trains are non-refundable and train-specific - miss your pre-scheduled trains and you are out the price of the ticket and must then spring for a new ticket at the regular price. Not sure how far out your trip is, but getting locked into something that can't be changed is annoying IME.

The Bayern Ticket provides flexibility. You can leave at any hour if you decide to linger over breakfast that morning. You can break up the trip on the way (like in attractive Landshut) if you wish. Or you can take a detour or re-route your trip to travel via Munich instead, if you wished to stop over there for some reason.

The Bayern Ticket also covers other means of transportation. You can use the bus in Regensburg that morning to reach Regensburg station, if you wish... same if you were to stop over in Landshut or Munich.

The Bayern Ticket provides a small measure of "insurance" as well. Someone with a Bayern Ticket who unwittingly boards the wrong regional train (which DOES happen sometimes) will not be hit with a hefty fine for travel without a valid ticket. Not so with saver fares. Let's say you bought the 8:26 trip from Regensburg on a saver fare ticket and inadvertently boarded some other train to some other destination, at the wrong side of your designated platform or at the wrong platform sector. There's no way to talk your way out of the fact that the train you are riding is on a track segment that is not authorized by your ticket....

The Trainline app appears to permit transfers from a Bayern to a high
speed (rail jet) train in Munich and not cost too much. (Alx to Rjx)
and saves an hr in time.

Any train connection on the Bahn website will permit transfers and any combination of trains.

Or am I missing somthing………

Are you looking at the 9:51 ALX from Regensburg to the RJX to Salzburg. It's listed at $81.81 on TL for a fully flexible ticket. Same ticket on the Bahn website is 67,90€ or $73.53. And that's for every person.

Or, you can use a Bayern-Ticket, spend an extra 45 minutes, and only pay 29€, or $31,41 for the first person, $10.83 more for each extra person.

Even if you get a Bayern-Ticket from TL, they'll charge you $34.63/person.

Trainline always charges more, then adds a booking fee.

No, buy your ticket directly from the Bahn.

Can you purchase the Bayern Ticket on the internet in advance instead of the day of travel? (for a day in the future)

Yes, of course. But make sure to select the correct date, as the ticket is not refundable.

But make sure to select the correct date

My thoughts exactly. There is no advantage to buying a Bayern-Ticket (or any other Länder-Ticket) in advance. You don't save any money; it's always the same price, and they don't sell out. And they are non-refundable, so don't buy it until you know you are going to use it, that day.

You might be worried about having time to buy it in the morning, but it takes so little time. I almost never buy a Länder-Ticket in advance. A few times I've bought one the night before because I was sure I would use it the next day.

Our Viking ship director strongly recommended getting rail tickets ahead of time.
However she also recommended seat reservations since Saturday travel in 2 weeks will be heavy in her experience and carrying bags onboard risks being separated, etc.
I don’t see how you book seats thru the DB or the Trainline apps or web.

THOUGHTS?
thanks so much

Only the long-distance, high-speed trains are reservable.

Did your cruise director explain that nearly all trips from Regensburg will include regional trains, which are not reservable? The DB site shows only 2 morning train trips for your route which use high-speed trains exclusively and are fully reservable on your travel date... 7:11 (3 hrs. 38 minutes) and 11:25 (3 hrs. 28 minutes.) They are priced at €100/2 and €136/2 respectively. Add several Euros each for reservations.

All the other offers use regional trains for part or all of the trip.

It would be my choice to travel on the 7:51 - 10:55 2-regional-train sequence, which gets you there faster than the high-speed train options... only 3 hrs 4 minutes. The change of train is in Landshut. This journey is not marked "high-demand-expected" like some others are, which means less demand for seats, of course. The same is true for the 9:51 - 12:55 regional train sequence. The Bayern ticket (€39/2 adults) covers both journeys.

My only concern about these two journeys would be the possibility that the time you have to change trains is 7 minutes, which normally is OK, but if the first train is late... you might miss the 2nd train, especially if you are not traveling light. So if you want to LENGTHEN that layover time between trains, just take the EARLIER regional train from Regensburg at 7:20 instead of 7:51... that gives you 34 minutes between trains. You can do the same thing with the other option... use the 9:19 train instead of the 9:51 train to get the same 34-minute time cushion between trains.

You do not "book" any specific trains when using regional trains. You just buy your Bayern ticket and get on whatever regional train you choose.

Next week I will be using the Bayern Ticket for a trip that takes me first to Regensburg for half a day and later to Augsburg that evening. I am not booking anything, because there is nothing to book. I will just buy my ticket at ticket machine and use the schedule I see online to tell me when/where to board the regional trains for my trip.

Using the 7:20 or 9:19 trains These trains ORIGINATE in Regensburg, so you might arrive 10-15 minutes early to be amont the first to board and secure the seats you want.

7:51 and 9:51 departures from Regensburg: These trains started elsewhere and are just making a stop in Regensburg to let off and pick up passengers. There will no doubt be some passengers getting off, so very likely some seats available for the two of you.

Great idea.
I booked the 9:51 BUT will actually take the 9:19 to Landshut in order to allow 34 min train change Vs 7.
Thanks!

We were in Germany and Austria last month and used a Bayern pass to train in Bavaria.
It was cheap, but we were confined to regional trains. Most of the time we had no seats and Europeans don't give their seats to older people (we are pushing 80).

The regional trains are clean, but crowded and they are slower, stopping at every little town. Still, they are OK for short trips.
From Munich to Regensburg, you would probably take a regional train anyway.