Train from Frankfurt Airport

The question that has been asked 1000 times, and always brings up the same question: How do you know that your plane will land on time? Time to clear immigration and get luggage is just a minor factor, on-time arrival is the major factor. If you buy advance tickets, and your plane is late, you lose the full amount and have to buy new full fare tickets.

I see that for 2 people (you said "We" so I assume at least 2) full fare tickets are 94 EUR. The cheapest advance fares are 39.80 EUR, so you really are not saving that much, and will be fretting the whole way. So I would just buy tickets when you arrive.

Work arounds:
1. If you fly Lufthansa, you can buy a ticket with a Rail-N-Fly ticket that will include a train to your destination no matter what time you arrive.
2. Use a German Rail Pass for your trip, at least for the expensive legs.

You could also take regional trains, but there will be more connections and it will take twice as long (3 hour vs 1 1/2 hour) as with ICE trains.

Using ICE trains, go from the Fernbahnhof. Connections go hourly at 52 past the hour.
If you go with regional trains, go from the Regionalbahnhof.

I think you're over thinking your train situation. Buying advance train tickets for train travel on the day you arrive is not recommended, as Sam pointed out. You would be buying tickets at the airport Deutch Bahn train station after you clear Customs. No need to worry about delayed arrivals or long lines at Immigration. So the tickets would be Frankfurt (M) Fluhhafen Fernbf to Baden Baden. They leave pretty much hourly, with a change in Manheim.

I certainly agree that you don't want to buy discounted advance purchase tickets to use when you arrive by train from North America. There are two many chances to miss the train. I, myself, have arrived in Germany an hour after the scheduled arrival time 3 times (out of 11 arrivals). I once tracked a USAir flight I was going to be taking, and on consecutive days it was 9 and 10 hours late to Munich (really). Rail'nFly offers a viable option to advance purchase tickets and is offered by other airlines besides Lufthansa; rail passes offer an alternative but I doubt that they will be cost effective. From a lot of airports regional passes offer a good alternative, but not usually from Frankfurt.

I, personally, don't like "Baden-Baden that much. Perhaps you could skip Baden-Baden and spend your first night in Bacharach. A point-point RMV ticket, purchasable on arrival and valid all that day on any regional train, is 12,20€ per person.

Buying advance train tickets for train travel on the day you arrive is
not recommended

I disagree. I highly recommend buying advanced train tickets.

We ALWAYS buy DB tickets 90 days in advance to take advantage of the heavily discounted tickets and have YET to miss the train from our inbound flight from JFK. We allow a 3 hour cushion and have found that we have more than enough time so we enjoy our first cup of wonderful German coffee at FRA and relax.

You're luckier than we were. Last time we flew in there, we were 2 hrs late. And were 3 hrs late arriving back home.

I've been flying to FRA since the 80s and have never had a delay more than 90 minutes from JFK. With one exception (a summer wedding), we only travel in the spring and autumn which don't have the blizzards or thunderstorms that can delay for hours or cancel flights. I'm lucky too I guess.

A 3 hour cushion works for us and the immense cost savings with super-savings rail tickets make such a cushion worthwhile.

But its 40 EUR (the best possible price for 2, no guarantee you can get that price) vs 94 EUR for full fare tickets. I don't call that immense savings. I play that game when I can get 200 EUR of tickets for 40 EUR.

We allow a 3 hour cushion

Not something I didn't consider long ago, but with advance purchase tickets and a three hour cushion, you could probably just buy regional tickets (Länder Tickets?) when you get there. Regional trains are slower, but with a 3 hour head start, you'd probably get to your destination sooner.

For instance, Frankfurt Flughafen to Munich using a Sparpreis ticket for 2 people and 3 months advance purchase is likely to cost 59,80€ and take 6½ hours 3½ hours plus your 3 hour cushion. The same trip, using regional trains to Kahl am Main (8,50€ pP from RMV) and a 31€ Bayern-Ticket would be less, 48€, and take about 5½ hours, an hour less.

But really, if you get Rail&Fly tickets, the problem is solved. It would cost a little more (66€), but Frankfurt to Munich could be in just 3½ hrs.

Thanks to all for your replies. Still have some considering to do.

But really, if you get Rail&Fly tickets, the problem is solved.

That depends on the airline. Rail & Fly isn't available with Delta, for example.

Not something I didn't consider long ago, but with advance purchase
tickets and a three hour cushion, you could probably just buy regional
tickets (Länder Tickets?) when you get there. Regional trains are
slower, but with a 3 hour head start, you'd probably get to your
destination sooner.

That got my attention! So I just applied your idea to an itinerary we often choose when arriving at FRA. We take the DB to Dortmund to visit friends. The DB Super Saver fast-train ICE fare bought 90 days in advance is €19.90 per person. The last minute regional rail fare is a whopping €68 per person. So the last-minute regional train is over 241% more expensive than the ICE purchased 90 days ahead of time.

We also prefer taking ICE trains over regionals for long-distance travel.

The last minute regional rail fare is a whopping €68 per person.

The highest regional fare I see on the Bahn website for Frankfurt airport to Dortmund is 65,80€ (not 68€), but that is for only a few select connections. There are other, less expensive connections down as low as 50€ per person. You wouldn't have to take the 65,80€ connection. Also, it is not necessary to pay the full regional fare; you can take exactly the same trains with a 50€ Schönes-Wolkenende-Ticket (weekends) or a 52€ Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket (weekdays) for both of you, and you can order the Ticket online (just like the Sparpreis Ticket) and have it with you when you arrive at the closer-in Regionalbhf. Just take the first train to your destination

As for advance purchase tickets, I don't see many for 39,80€ fares for two. To use one of those might require waiting more than the three hours. I see more at 59,80€, and those, often, after waiting 3 hours don't get you into Dortmund significantly earlier, if at all earlier.

Also, if you have a regional pass (SWT or QdLT) and your flight gets in early, you can leave earlier and get to you destination. With the advance purchase ticket, you just have to wait longer.

But look at it on a date and destination basis. There might be some times and a few destination where the advance purchase would be more economical and make sense time-wise, but I'm sure that there are many more cases where it is not.

Rail & Fly isn't available with Delta, for example.

Just one more reason to fly Lufthansa. I've flown to Germany on Northwest (now Delta), Delta, USAir (now United), United, and Lufthansa, and I much prefer Lufthansa.

Also consider that planes can arrive early (happened to me more than once). A 3 hour time cushion might mean close to 4 hours of waiting in an extreme case; four hours of travel time, on the other hand, are enough to reach most German cities from Frankfurt airport.
What I have done before: Pre-book a train that leaves half a day after the scheduled arrival, and plan to spend the time closer to the airport (Frankfurt or Mainz in your case). But yes, if your airline offers Rail&Fly and you find out how to add it to your booking (not always trivial), this is probably the best option.

BTW, Continental, when you say you allow a 3 hour buffer for late arrival, do you mean

1. You schedule your train connection for 3 hours after scheduled flight arrival? I've always figured that including deplaning, passport check, and walking time I can to the Fernbahnhof within an hour after landing. So that would basically leave about 2 hours to account for late arrival, or

2. You schedule your train connection for about 4 hours after scheduled flight arrival so if the flight arrives 3 hours late you still have about an hour to get to the Fernbahnhof.

You also have to remember it takes longer to get to the Fernbahnhof from a Delta flight since Delta uses Terminal 2.

if your airline offers Rail&Fly and you find out how to add it to your booking (not always trivial)

Amen to "not always trivial". Some years ago, when I read about Rail&Fly, I looked on the Lufthansa website but didn't see anything about it. So I called Lufthansa but the US representative had never heard of it! Only recently did I see that the website includes it.

Since the I have made only one trip to German. This time we went from FRA to St. Goar, and the ticket directly to St. Goar was less than 21€ each, so I didn't bother with Rail&fly.

"From there we want to catch a train to Baden Baden."

For a number of reasons, Baden-Baden tends to be a weak destination choice. For starters, the station is several miles outside town.

Are you still heading to Freiburg and Switzerland? There are other good options for stopping over on the way. Heidelberg, for example, is less than 2 hours from FRA by regional train and costs €22.70 each flex-preis (you can catch whatever regional trains you like at whatever hour you are ready to leave - no cushion needed, problem solved.) Buy at the station or in advance - the price is the same.

Because Heidelberg and Freiburg are both in Baden-Württemberg, you can depart from Heidelberg on a later day using regional trains and the Baden-Württemberg Länder-Ticket (€30/2 adults.) The trip looks to be about 2.5 - 3 hours.

There might be other options available if Switzerland is your next planned stop after Baden-Baden ( for example: one-ticket solution... saver-fare ticket on regional trains for Leg #1, with extra-long layover prior to high-speed train trip for Leg #2.) If that's the case, share your itinerary details and we can see what's possible.

BTW, Continental, when you say you allow a 3 hour buffer for late arrival, do you mean

You schedule your train connection for 3 hours after scheduled flight arrival? I've always figured that including deplaning, passport check, and walking time I can to the Fernbahnhof within an hour after landing. So that would basically leave about 2 hours to account for late arrival, or

You schedule your train connection for about 4 hours after scheduled flight arrival so if the flight arrives 3 hours late you still have about an hour to get to the Fernbahnhof.

You also have to remember it takes longer to get to the Fernbahnhof from a Delta flight since Delta uses Terminal 2.

About 4½ years ago I arrived at FRA and went from there to a small town in the Black Forest.

One option was using a Sparpreis ticket from FRA to Karlsruhe. The best price for an advance purchase ticket was 59,80 for two. That connection took 2H29.

The alternative was a QdL Ticket for 52€. Using those regional trains the connection took 3H49.

If the flight came in on time, I could easily take to the regional train at 10:00 and to the town at 13:51, but if I scheduled a 2 hour cushion and took the 11:52 ICE, I would get to town at 14:21.

USAir (now United),

American Airlines merger/bought/absorbed US Air

Like Lee, My flights tend to be late - 2 of 3 in recent years, one a day late. This last time ( of course it was the one time my plane was on time 😀 ), I just took a train to nearby city for the first night and used an advance purchase ticket the next day.

BTW, Continental, when you say you allow a 3 hour buffer for late
arrival, do you mean

You schedule your train connection for 3 hours after scheduled flight
arrival? I've always figured that including deplaning, passport check,
and walking time I can to the Fernbahnhof within an hour after
landing. So that would basically leave about 2 hours to account for
late arrival, or

You schedule your train connection for about 4 hours after scheduled
flight arrival so if the flight arrives 3 hours late you still have
about an hour to get to the Fernbahnhof.

Typically it's about 3-3 1/2 hours from when the flight is scheduled to arrive. It's never been exactly 3 and if the time were just under 3 hours for a train, for example, I would pick the next one. With carry-ons, we've never had a problem. And I've been doing this since the early 80s when I was a teen with my parents.

You also have to remember it takes longer to get to the Fernbahnhof
from a Delta flight since Delta uses Terminal 2.

Yup. There is the monorail from T2 to T1 that runs every few minutes. It's very efficient. FRA is great.

As for advance purchase tickets, I don't see many for 39,80€ fares for
two. To use one of those might require waiting more than the three
hours.

More than 3 hours? Not in our experience. Typically, the departure time for these cheap fares is mid-morning through mid-afternoon which has been ideal for us. The cost savings PLUS the chance to relax a bit over coffee and something to eat after flying and enduring the lines of immigration are things we look forward to doing.

The €19.90 fare is indeed a great price. That you haven't seen this fare is perhaps because the DB newly introduced it beginning in August. Now is YOUR opportunity to learn something from your time on this website to paraphrase you. Deutche Bahn's announcement of new budget ticket for long distance travelers was made in May. I learned about it from another thread on this wonderful forum.