Germany Train Second Class

Dave second class means second class. What was probably the issue was that you picked the second class fare for holders of the Bahn Card, which is not a pass, but gives you a discount (25%) on second class tickets. The machine wouldn't know whether you were eligible or not.

I'm not positive about this, but I believe Munich's airport is only served by Sbahn trains, most of which do not have class distinctions. You chose the Bahncard 50 reduction, which as noted, you need to be a Bahncard subscriber to validate. What appeared to be a first class ticket was probably just the normal price ohne Bahncard.

So no, there's nothing special about Deutsche Bahn second class (on trains that offer separate classes, which I suspect, your train did not). Just make sure you don't choose the Bahncard reduction when purchasing tickets. As noted, neither the machines nor online purchases will require you to present a Bahncard if you choose that option. The check comes when the attendent validates your ticket and asks you to present the card.

BahnCards come in 3 levels. A BahnCard 25 gives you a 25% discount on tickets you purchse; a BAhnCard 50 gives you a 50% discount. A BahnCard 100 gives you unlimited travel for no charge except for reservations and a supplement for the IC Sprinter.

Second class carriages have a center aisle with two seats on either side or a compartment with six seats. First class has two seats on one side of the aisle, one on the other side or a four seat compartment. So second class is a little less roomy, but certainly has more room than an economy plane seat. First class also has nicer upholstery.

When the company I worked for at the time first sent me to Europe, they bought me 1st class tickets. The next trip was a vacation on my own dime and I had a 2nd class rail pass. The difference was so insignificant for me that from then on I bought only 2nd class tickets, even when the company was paying for the ticket.

Dave,

The nice German lady told us, "She said your story is believable, and it's too complicated to figure out how much you owe, so she isn't going to worry about it."

You were very fortunate, as I've heard of people being fined on the S-Bahn from the airport to Munich for ticket irregularities.

It's surprising with a train from the airport that caters to many international travellers, that the ticket agent wouldn't have at least rudimentary English-language skills.

Ken, it's the S-Bahn, not the Orient Express. And people landing at Munich airport don't just speak English, there is French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Russian, .... How many languages do the ticket inspectors on your local commuter trains speak?
And in how many languages does their website explain the ticketing options?

"It's surprising with a train from the airport that caters to many international travellers, that the ticket agent wouldn't have at least rudimentary English-language skills."

Might have, but they bought their tickets from an automat. (I know, he said Ticket Agent, but Ticket Agents are at ticket counters. Conductors are on the trains.) If they had gone to a ticket counter, the agent would probably not have sold them a ticket with a BahnCard discount without asking to see their BahnCard.

It isn't clear on what train they were on, but I doubt that is was an S-Bahn The S-Bahn doesn't have regular conductors, only spot inspections. I've ridden the Munich S-Bahns for 15 years and only once saw a ticket inspector.

Dave, no second class is just what it sounds like. You bought a Bahn Card discount fare and need a Bahn Card to use it with. We always buy Eurail rail passes before leaving home (www.eurail.com) and ride first class. When we do have to buy tickets, we recommend to avoid buying them from machines and to buy first class. You should try it out at least once. I am so glad that German woman was there to intercede for you. No excuse for the ticket inspector to yell and get all worked up with you because you didn't understand her. That is rude and inappropriate.

I have to disagree with Terri Lynn. I last bought a railpass (2nd class German Rail) in 2000, and when I got home I looked at my travel and realized that, for the trains I actually used, I broke even vs full fare tickets, but I could have substituted different trains for a little more time and saved significantly. And at that time there weren't even a lot of Länder-Tickets available, which would have saved more. Since then I always compare my projected travel costs with the cost of a rail pass, and a railpass doesn't come close to making any sense.

First class, in my opinion, is just unnecessary luxury. The seats in 2nd class are perfectly adequate for me. Why add to the cost of travel with something as frivolous as 1st class?

Ticket automats sell the full array of tickets; why not use them?

Hi,

I would say you lucked out in having that woman speak on your behalf which resulted in your paying nothing extra. Not all train controllers are in the best of moods all the time. Regardless of where it is in Germany, big city or small town, ICE or regional train, I don't expect the controller to speak even rudimentary English just so they can communicate with a passenger. In that sense I agree with Chris. Some will, some won't, which in those cases I've seen, they get a colleague who is more adept at English.

Similar thing happened to me in Zurich, I picked the half-price ticket but a woman in line near me saw that I had made a mistake and let me know I needed the full-price ticket, so I cleverly compounded the error by buying a second half-price ticket, gave both to the conductor, and she understood the problem and laughed. Could have turned out differently.

We arrived at Munich airport at 6:30 am; the train ticket counter (which we had used on a previous trip) didn't open until something like 8:30 am, so we bought from the machine. It was a Munich to Salzburg ticket. We were on a S-bahn train from München airport to München Ost station, and then caught a Meridian train to Salzburg. I think both trains had only a single class of seating. I don't remember exact details of using the machine to be honest, but I do remember answering "No" to a question about having a Bahn something, clicking a fare (that I'm 99% sure was labeled "First Class") that seemed excessively high, hitting the back button, and being offered a fare for half the cost (that I'm 99% sure was labeled "Second Class"). Maybe hitting the back button somehow revealed the Bahn Card Fares? I remember being surprised a little by the first/second class option because our previous travel on the same route had been on the same trains with seemingly only one class. My travel companion has the same memory of first/second class terminology. In fact, immediately following the encounter, she said, "I guess second class doesn't mean in Germany what it means in the US."

I'm not going to give the conductor (thanks for educating me on the correct term!) too much grief. We were silly Americans with toddler German trying to travel on the cheap. I feel like if I were a good, rule-abiding German, I would forward a check to DB Bahn for the fare difference, but it seems like too much of a hassle -- and the conductor did forgive us (sort of?) for not paying full fare.

We were actually saved twice by kind Germans during that train trip. Our ticket fell out of my jacket in the walkway between platforms at the Ost station; another nice German lady tapped my back and pointed to our ticket lying on the ground. I'm guessing the Meridian conductor's ire would not have been assuaged so easily if we had no ticket. She had some guy taken off the train in handcuffs several stations later -- not sure what that was all about. But I'm pretty sure I heard him shouting "Sprechen Sie Englisch? Sprechen Sie Englisch?" as he was led away. (For the record, I'm joking about him shouting -- he was actually smiling a sheepish smile).

Meridian does have both 2nd and 1st class fares on the trains to Salzburg (although the 1st class sections might be quite small). The 2nd class fare from MUC to Salzburg by S-Bahn and Meridian is 33,80€/pers; 1st class, including the S-Bahn, which is only 2nd class, is 54€/pers. If it was on a weekend, or if you could have waited until 9 AM on a workday, you could have used a Bayern-Ticket for 28€ for both of you.

Did you try to use a Bayern-Ticket before 9 AM on a workday? Then she would have had to charge you extra, full fare, for the part of the trip before you reached the first station after 9 AM, and that would have been complicated.

BTW, there is a 1st class Bayern-Ticket at 51€ for two. That's not twice 28€, but close. Maybe it was the 1st class Bayern-Ticket, for 51€ you passed on, and you took the 28€ 2nd class Bayern-Ticket, but left before you were supposed to.

The initial screen gave us some options on ticket buying -- the Bayern ticket was one of the options, but I did not choose that option. I'm not sure how I ended up with the ticket I did. Apparently it was something I did at the ticket machine. Glad to know that 2nd class in Germany is 2nd class as everywhere else.

"Why add to the cost of travel with something as frivolous as 1st class?"

Although I usually traveled in the second class carriages, I'll offer some suggestions of when 1st class is a good idea.

You will notice in 1st class that about half the passengers are business travelers. If you have to work en-route, 1st class is perfect because the lower density of seats gives you more work room, and plus there's a lot less "Excuse me, I need to use the toilet, could you please move?". Many buisness travelers ride the trains on expense accounts anyway, so the cost is mostly invisible to them.

Another advantage of 1st class is that on a particularly busy train, there's usually more vacancies. And it's generally quieter, even more so than the designated "quiet" carriages in 2nd class.

For the most part, though, 2nd class is more than adequate and very comfortable for most travelers.