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Bahn Card Worthwhile for our trip?

Posted by (Plymouth Meeting, PA, USA) on

I am pretty confused and running out of time to book some train trips for our honeymoon, so I hoped this board can help me understand the Bahn card. I simply want to know how it works and whether it is worthwhile for us.
Our trip (not including the Iceland portion), will be from Amsterdam to Munich via overnight train on June 10-11, then we plan to use the train from Munich to Baden-Baden a few days later and will ultimately end up in Frankfurt on the 16th to fly back to the states (barring ash clouds of course.)

Is it worthwhile for me to purchase us a Bahn Card? I have to do my night train reservations asap as I noticed they have gone up in price from a couple days ago and I am now very worried we're going to get shut out. That Bahn Card will save us 25%.

I was confused as to how I might use the Bahn Card when buying our train trips to the other locations (Baden-Baden, Frankfurt). Do I just show it when I buy a ticket at the station? Should I purchase all the trips we have planned right now online? Or, is there a cheaper option for the trips we are planning (we may do some day trips as well to places like Dachau but are going to play it by ear)?

Adding up the tickets as they stand right now, we'd save about $75 total having a Bahn Card, but that probably has changed since the prices went up.

Advice is very much appreciated!
-Suz

Posted by
19092 posts

First thing you must understand is that the Bahn Card is an "abonnement" (an annual subscription). Unless you get the proper form to fill out and send in to cancel, they continue to bill your credit card every year. Someone recently posted a link to that form.

There are other ways to save money with the Bahn, although the discounted tickets require advance purchase and the lowest priced tickets sell out quickly. You might already be too late. They are also date and train specific and non-refundable as of the day of travel. If you enter a date at least three days in advance on the German Rail website you will see the fares listed under "Savings fares". These discounted tickets are offers of the Bahn, which operates the express trains (ICE/IC/EC) and at least one leg must be on an express train. Regional trains can be used to get to/from the express train.

For shorter distances, there are "Länder-Tickets" (approx €30 for up to 5 people), all day passes for unlimited travel on regional trains in a specified state or the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket (Happy weekend), for €37 for up to 5 people, which is an all day pass of all regional trains in Germany on a weekend day.

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