Buying Train Tickets on the Internet

" If I buy a train ticket over the internet on German Rail - do we need a printed copy of the ticket? How should we get the printed copy?" At least three options- one, print off the PDF that loads after you buy the ticket (it's also sent to your email account). Two, have the ticket mailed to you. Three, pick up the ticket at the station (I've never used this option, so I don't know how it works). The reason to pre-purchase off the internet is so that you save money on long-distance, high speed trains. You could easily buy tickets at the station, but you would pay full price. Advanced purchase discounts are usually available up to a few days before the date of travel. The price is cheapest 90 days prior, and it periodically increases thereafter. Local trains generally do not have advanced purchase discounts, but there's other ways to save, depending on what you have planned.

You can get your ticket on your mobile phone, but you have to have a Bahn log-in to get it that way. The touch screen Bahn automats have a touch pad for retrieving online tickets. But, you might only be able to retrieve tickets purchased by phone. As Tom said, the major reason to purchase tickets online is to take advantage of the deep discounts available if you purchase more than three days in advance. Any closer to the travel date, and you can only get full fare tickets. Of course, you might also want to have a full fare ticket in hand when you first arrive at the station to avoid taking time buying your ticket when you leave, although I've never found that to be a big problem. Online purchase works in this case, as does buying the ticket at an earlier station. There is no price advantage to buying regional tickets in advance.

Thanks both for your replies - I think I understand now. On vacation we will not have smartphones as these are primarily work devices and this is a vacation after all!! So if we want to use ICE trains and get discounts we have to plan. No planning means no discounts. If we plan then getting paper copies are no problem.