Using DB Bahn web site to purchase tickets

When you click "Search", does it come up with a column labeled "Savings Fares" with a fare and a button for "Purchase" and it comes back and says YOU cannot purchase tickets online? Or something else? Two things: 1) To get the savings fare, at least one train in the connection must be a train of the Bahn (ICE/IC/EC). 2) To purchase online, the start and the destination cannot both be in the same Verkehrverbund (metro district). That is, it cannot be a ticket from Frankfurt to Marburg or to Fulda or to Darmstadt. Your start, apparently, is Frankfurt(M)Hbf, in the Rhein-Main Verkehrsverbund, which includes most of southern Hessen. What is the destination?

One example of my travel plans would be to start in Frankfurt (Main) traveling to Bacharach. I noticed if I selected Bahn card 25 (2 class) then if I was traveling to some of the larger places it would give me a price. However, I'm not clear what the Bahn card is and how I go about purchasing one. If I select "No Bahn card" (the default) I get no prices. I did see the saver green check mark sometimes.

Look at Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbhf 9:58 to Bacharach 11:20. You could buy a ticket in advance for FRA to Bacharach but there is no point to it. It won't save any money, and you don't need a reservation. There will be plenty of seats and another train in an hour. I've traveled all over Germany in the last 10 years and never had a ticket in advance except when I advanced purchased €63 worth of Dauer-Special ticket in 2008, saving over $100.

BTW, a ticket via S-Bahn to Mainz and regional train to Bacharach, on the RMV website (www.rmv.de), is €10,50.

The Bahn Card is a discount card for people living in Germany and traveling a lot on the trains. A Bahn Card 25 gives a 25% reduction on their tickets, but costs several hundreds of Euro up front, so you have to use it a lot to make it pay. Also, the Bahn Card is an abonnement, a subsciption, which renews evey year, (they bill your credit card until you figure out how to turn it off).

Thanks! You have given me valuable info. to research.