We are arriving at the Frankfurt airport on a Monday morning and planning on taking the train to Essen where we will pick up our rental car. The travel agent said just to purchase our tickets once we arrive but I notice on the rail site that we could save some money if we were to purchase them ahead.But, if we miss the train the tickets are void. Any way to take advantage of a lower price? Also, we will be travelling by train from Salzburg to Vienna. On the Austrian rail site there are good deals on tickets for groups of 2 to 5 but I cannot seem to purchase them on line. Any suggestions? Pat
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19232 posts
To get the lowest rate on an airline in the US, you have to buy a flight-specific ticket that is non-refundable if you miss the flight. Same thing on German Rail, but I would not advice someone arriving on a trans-Atlantic flight to book a low cost, non-refundable train fare.
However, there are other, not so fast, options. If you are arriving on a weekend day, you can use a €35 Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket for up to five people (as low as €7 pP). This gives you unlimited travel on regional trains for the entire day, and you can go from FRA to Essen, via Koblenz or Siegen, in less than 5 hours. On weekdays, depending on the route, you can put together a combination of a Hessen-Ticket (€30) and a Schöner-Tag (NordRhein-Westfalen) ticket (€33), or you can take the S-Bahn to Mainz for €3,60 per person, use a €26 Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket to Bonn, and a €33 NordRhein-Westfalen-Ticket from there to Essen.