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New train Questions

Posted by (San Diego, CA, USA) on

Well, here I am again trying to game the system. I am not sure that the "Putin war" will be over by September 2022, but I am planning for the worst and hoping for the best. All of my hotel reservations can be cancelled for free. But train tickets are another story.

  1. If I purchase a Sparpreis Europa train ticket from DE Bahn, I can cancel up to the day before the trip starts "for a fee and a voucher". Is the "fee" still 10 € per person? How long is the voucher good for?

  2. Assume that I purchase a one way Sparpreis Europa train ticket to go from town A to town C with a change of trains in town B. If my plans change, obviously I can get off the train in Town B and not use the rest of the ticket that goes between towns B and C. However, could I use the ticket from town B to town C a week later IF THAT PORTION OF THE TRIP is specified as a "local" train on the ticket?

  3. The real question is can I use the one way Sparpreis Europa train ticket to travel on the specified train from town B to town C without using the ticket to travel between towns A and B?

Danke vielmals...

Posted by
19092 posts

For SparPreis tickets inside Germany, and I would assume there is no difference for SparPreis Europe tickets, a provision called Vor- und Nach-Lauf applies to this situation. The ticket probably spells this out. The Long Distance Train (or Fernverkehr Zug) specified on the ticket is specific, i.e., you can only travel on that train. However, you can take any Nahverkehr train (near travel train) on the same route to get to/from the specified Fernverkehr train, as long as you complete your journey by 10 AM the following day, not a week later.

could I use the ticket from town B to town C a week later

I think the Bahn is unambiguous on this, you must complete the travel to town C by 10 AM the day following the ticketed travel on the specified train.

Posted by
6637 posts

I think the Bahn is unambiguous on this, you must complete the travel
to town C by 10 AM the day following the ticketed travel on the
specified train.

The DB conditions for international tickets in question (Sparpreis Europa in this case) appear to be more generous than that.

https://assets.static-bahn.de/dam/jcr:68322672-ccb9-46e5-ac6c-833503d98abf/Internationale%20Bef%C3%B6rderungsbedingungen%20der%20DB%20AG%20-%20Stand%2001.01.2021.pdf

Entfernung ab 100 Kilometer Fahrkarten ab 100 km gelten zwei Tage ab dem 1. Geltungstag (Beispiel: erster Geltungstag ist der >01.04., letzter Geltungstag ist dann der 02.04.).

So the rules appear to say you have two days to complete the journey on international destinations. The DB rules go on to say that your journey must conclude by 24:00 on the second day, 03:00 of the 3rd day if the journey ends in Germany.

For kicks I just tested this by entering data for a St. Goar (D) > Hallstatt (A) journey on 22.06.22 with a stopover of 24 hours in Munich. The result was a €27.90 Super-Sparpreis Europa ticket...

22.06, 07:23: depart St. Goar
23.06, 17:24: arrive Hallstatt

2-day trips like this are available in the reverse direction as well.

Then I got greedy and tried a stopover time of 42 HOURS in Munich for Hallstatt > St. Goar and got a €29.90 super saver with this schedule:

22.06, 8:28: depart Hallstatt
24.06, 12:55: arrive St. Goar

So I then tried the same 42-hr. Munich stopover for St. Goar > Hallstatt, also with excellent results - a €27.90 super saver:

22.06, 07:23: depart St. Goar
24.06, 11:24: arrive Hallstatt

So in light of the rules I've read, I can't explain how a single ticket allows travel over so many hours across 3 separate calendar days. But it does just that.

The results I just got were surprising based on the rules - but not so surprising based on the Sparpreis Europa tickets I bought back in 2018 for a 3-day journey between Düsseldorf and Budapest with a lengthy stopover in Salzburg.

All I can really say is you should test the system yourself to see if it will accommodate your stopover needs.

Posted by
321 posts

Hi lee and Russ- Thanks for the information. Russ- you are a better man than I. I tried to book the trip proposed by you and finally gave up after an hour. I have never been able to get the stopover function to work on the Bahn site so I always wind up buying 2 tickets ...

Any information on the length of the validity for trip cancellation vouchers would be helpful.

Once more,

Danke vielmals....

Posted by
6637 posts

If you want to PM me the journey details for the stopover ticket, I'll give it a go and if successful, I will send you back some instructions for the newly-formatted DB site. I'm not good enough with it to rattle those off to you without doing it hands-on first.

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