Bahn Ticket selection help for Germany-Sazburg travel

I looked quickly at the Bahn website for Munich to Salzburg in 2nd class. Standard fares were €34, €30 and €27,60 by RailJet, EC, and regional trains respectively. With a Bahn Card 50, the fares were €17, €15, and €13,80 respecively. So, yes, the Bahn Card is half price for all standard fare tickets. It doesn't look to me like your purchasing a rail pass would be at all economical. By the way, as a current resident of Germany (?), I assume, you might not be eligible for a Eurail pass. You can't be a resident of Europe. There is the Interrail pass for European residents, but it might not cover the area where you live. Since you are in Kaiserslautern, you're probably in the military. I don't know how that affect pass eligibility. But you have other options. For €29, all three of you can go from Munich to Salzburg and back in a day by regional trains with a Bayern-Ticket and they won't need a day of their rail passes. The Bahn website has a box near the bottom of the query page where you can specify a Bahn Card and it will give you the prices for your ticket. You have posted the same question twice. You might want to delete the other post.

point to point tickets are the way to go. possibly would have been the way to go for your friends, too, as if you book point to point tickets together with a bahncard, they get a reduced amount off tickets as well. to reserve seats together, you can do this online after you purchase your tickets. when you go to bahn.com at the input area on the left side of the screen, there is an option for "purchase seat reservations without tickets". click that then input the route and time you want to go on, and you can print out the ticket reservations at home.

I was on my way to the gym, or I would have posted this earlier. I don't think there is any reason to get reservations in advance. A lot of the trains you take will probably be regional trains and there are no reserved seats on those trains. If you do decide on reservations, just get them at the station, the day, before or even the day of, travel. In 12 years I have never seen a train, even when crowded, where a lot of seats were reserved. After the first day, when you reserve seats and find half the seats in the train are not even occupied, you'll probably stop reserving.

Thanks for the input! Like you said, Lee, I don't think I am eligible for the same kind of rail pass that my friends got because I'm an EU resident, not with the Military. The Interrail Pass doesn't include Germany and Austria unless I want to pay boat loads more! So point to point is probably the way to go for me. My friends will be using their passes to include some other rides as well as the KD Line on the Rhine so they should get their money's worth! Not sure if some of the tickets that allow for up to five passengers include ICE trains or if they are just the regional? We'd be taking the ICE to Munich. We've had friends say to always reserve but the only time we did was for Munich during Oktoberfest and it was worth it, the train was a mess. But I think you're right, we probably won't since they are relatively short trips in the middle of the week.
Thanks!!

The regional passes (Länder Tickets) are only good on regional trains (S, RB, RE, IRE). You can use one for Munich to Salzburg by RE. If you want to use an express train (ICE/IC) you should look for Savings Fares. These can include some segments by regional train, if necessary to get to the express trains, but must include at least on segment by express train. They are train specific, non-refundable tickets, but start as low as €29, one way in 2nd class. For June 20, for example, I see lots of connections, with one change in Mannheim, for that price. If they want to use their rail passes from Munich to Salzburg, you can get a Bayern-Ticket Single for €21.

I now always reserve in advance for 2nd classICE trains if I'm traveling with family or friends. I followed advice here that I didn't need to and have found myself on crowded trains, needing to change seats constantly (as we'd pull into stations where the seat was reserved) with anxious mother and grandmother who wanted to be able to sit with me because train travel made them nervous. 1st Class is usually empty enough that I wouldn't worry about it. Sometimes you're fine in second class...and sometimes you're not. The reservation fees are minimal, so I go ahead and reserve for peace of mind/comfort.