Purchased train tickets on Bahn.de for Austria, Switzerland, and Germany

"what he has do with the print outs at the train stations?"

Nothing, at the station; it's not like an airport, no checkin. Just get on the train and show the printout to the conductor when he asks for the tickets. You might have to show the conductor the bank card you used to purchase the ticket (since you could print multible copies), but I never had to (or, that might only be for German Rail discount tickets where you are not allowed to buy them for a third party).

BTW, I'm sure you could have bought the Interlaken to Basel ticket on the Swiss Rail website, but you also could have bought "it" from the Bahn by specifying Interlaken Ost to Basel Bad Bahnhof. Basel Bad Bahnhof, although actually in Basel, Switzerland, was built by German Rail and is considered a German station. German Rail offers ticket from Interlaken to Basel Bad Bf but not to Basel SBB Bf with is a non-Germany route. The route from Interlaken to Basel Bad Bf goes through the Swiss Basel station. You can just get off there.

The Bahn price would normally be less than RailEurope's price. However, the Euro has gone up dramatically in the last few weeks, and Rail Europe has not adjusted their prices, so today, RE's price in US$ is less than the Bahn's price in Euro, converted to $. Of course the RE price still includes shipping, which makes it more.

Hope you don't run into any problems. If you bought the online tickets with your credit card, the rule is that you have to show your ticket and your credit card to the conductor when he/she asks to see your ticket. If your father is using some of the tickets but not traveling with you all the time, that might be a problem, because he would not be able to show the conductor the right credit card. The card has to be the one that was used to purchase the tickets, and the railroad's computer system can verify this.

I bought a round trip Berlin-Dresden in May, and on both legs, the conductor asked to see my credit card and swiped it into his machine, which I assume verifies that it is the right card.

If you have doubts, I would call the railroad help line about this. I think they have English-speaking agents available.

Tyler, what kind of a ticket did you buy? Was it a discount priced, Dauer-Spezial or SparPreis ticket, that you printed out on line, or was it an open, full fare ticket, that they sent through the mail, or?

I ask because the rule is that you can't buy the discount tickets for a third party (I think they want to avoid ticket agents buying them to resell at a higher price), so the credit card is the protection against that, and the name on the ticket and the name on the credit card have to match exactly.

On the other hand, the credit card is also protection against your printing the ticket and using it more than once, but for that purpose, I don't see why the names have to match.

In my case, I bought Dauer-Spezial tickets without realizing that, because I had registered with the Bahn 10 years ago, and used my nickname then, never knowing I would use it to get tickets, it did not match my legal name on my credit card. However, I called the Bahn and they did straighten it out and emailed me new tickets with the correct name.

My ticket was discounted because it was a weekend special, rather than full fare (leaving Berlin on a Saturday, returning from Dresden on a Monday). it was also one of those tickets this is valid only on the specific date and train reserved. It was an "online ticket" that I bought from the bahn.de website and printed out.

Both directions, the conductor asked to see my VISA card, which he swiped, then he stamped the ticket with the date.

I used a visa credit card that has my name on it but it is my Dad's account so he has the exact same credit card with his name on it. This is why I thought it would be ok for me to buy them. I will actually be with him on each trip so I guess it shouldn't be a problem either way right?

Doesn't sound like a problem at all, Heather, since you will both be together. If the conductor notices any discrepancies, you can show him both credit cards.