Should I get a Eurail Select Pass or buy point-to-point?

"I tried pricing the point-to-point fares based on Rick Steves' maps"

Those are extremely rough estimates of normal fares. But there are much better fares available.

Use DB (German Railways) to price your journeys. Look for the SPARPREIS tickets column for the best value when your search results pop up.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

When's your trip? You will not get prices for dates 92+ days out - only earlier dates.

Sparpreis tickets require you to use the trains scheduled when you purchase the ticket; prices rise as tickets sell so buy at 91 days in advance if possible.

The maps on this website are overpriced. They assume you are using the "turn up and go" fare. But, nobody but businessmen who travel at less than 24 hours notice pays that fare.
Go to the site of the company running the trains (DB = German Railways: www.bahn.de), english version: https://www.bahn.de/p_en/view/index.shtml
and book well in advance (2-3 months) you can get a lot cheaper.
For example Frankfurt (Main) to Berlin, 17th October, €79.90
Berlin to Amsterdam, same date, from €39.
These fares are for a specific train. The ticket will list the date, train number, time, coach and seat numbers; they are not valid on any other train and you cannot change them. That is the disadvantage.

Booking advance purchase tickets such as these is always cheaper than a rail pass.

Correction: Frankfurt (Main) to Berlin, 9th November is currently going for €19! The map on this website shows US$135

You shouldn't be surprised about the prices - MOST of the time point to point tickets are WAY cheaper than overpriced Eurail Passes. In addition there are other costs associated with using the Eurail Passes - reservation fees which are NOT included in the Eurail Pass.

We plan on visiting in mid-May next year. I was under impression that Eurail passes are a solid deal but I guess not! So I guess I should be buying point-to-point then?

Yes indeed. One issue is that unless you add in a big cushion at Frankfurt airport, your plane could be late and you miss your train. Certainly Munich to Berlin and Berlin to Amsterdam should be done with Sparpreis tickets.

Looking 90 days out, there are direct trains from Frankfurt airport to Munich costing 38 to 48 EUR for 2. The walk-up price for 2 is 202 EUR. So if you left a 3 hour cushion from your landing time to you planned train time, it might be worth the gamble. Worse comes to worse and you miss it, you can get your ticket refunded for a 17.50 EUR fee then apply the balance to the new full fare ticket. The direct trains take 3 1/2 hours to get to Munich and there are about 2 trains every hour.

Another idea would be to book the train via Frankfurt Hbf with say a 5 hour stopover there. If your plane arrives on time, go into Frankfurt and store your bags in a locker and have a look around the city before taking your direct ICE train to Munich. Even if your plane is 3 hours late, you can take any local train the Hbf and still meet your train to Munich.

So, from what I gather, there are two train stations I could choose from? The easiest one would be from the airport but the other one is the Main Terminal? Our flight is supposed to get in at 9.50am in the morning. Also, what is the difference between the IC and ICE products I see offered under "Products" on the selection page?

No, Frankfurt(Main) refers to the river Frankfurt is on, the Main River. This is to distinguish it from another city named Frankfurt which on the Oder River on the border with Poland, Frankfurt(Oder).
Yes there are 2 stations at the airport, but they are adjacent to one another.
Regionalbahnhof = Regional train station for local trains
Fernbahnhof = Long distance train station for trunk-line trains
IC = Intercity trains, often a bit older and often without a bar/restaurant car.
ICE = InterCityExpress trains, Slick modern trains with pointy noses and an engine front and back. Given the right tracks, they can go over 200 mph. These are the top trains in Germany

Edit - And if the first part of this answer is not what you meant. There is Frankfurt(Main)'s city center "main" train station called the Hauptbahnhof, abbreviated Hbf. It is connected to the airport Regionalbahnhof by local trains, S-Bahn (S), Regionalbahn (RB) and Regional Express trains (RE).

Hi,

I use the Austro-German Pass, not a Select pass, not worth it, but in your case with that short itinerary I don't suggest a Pass, not for 4 days. Be advised that buying the adv purchase tickets will give you savings but at the expense of sacrificing flexibility. You're locked in a specific date and train departure.

The city is called Frankfurt am Main, to distinguish it from Frankfurt an der Oder.
The main station in the centre of the city is Frankfurt (Main) Hbf, the one at the airport is Frankfurt (M) Flughafen, which is divided into "Regionalbahnhof" and "Fernbahnhof". They have different platform numbers and are well signposted, so confusion shouldn't be an issue.
You didn't say you were coming from the airport, so I assumed you were starting your rail trip to Munich from the city centre.
Hbf = Hauptbahnhof = Main station.

Note also the Munich will be listed a München Hbf, using the German name for the city.

Fred, as of this year, all the two-"country" passes were renamed as part of the Select Pass. Next year, something else could change.

Mia, something does seem wrong with your initial math. At full fare, using the map at https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/cost-maps, those three train tickets add up to $385 per person. Obviously, that's the scenario to avoid. To save money and/or add convenience, the choice of a rail pass vs advance-discount tickets depends on how committed you are to traveling on particular routes, dates, and times. Your routes don't require seat reservations or extra fees, so with a rail pass, you could preserve some flexibility, especially for the Frankfurt-Munich train that you're thinking of taking immediately after landing at the airport. Your later two routes are better candidates for advance booking (longer, and not counting on airlines).

The $508 pass price that you quoted is in dollars, not euros, and is total for two traveling together, or $254 per person. If you were ready to buy a pass now (probably not), then you could get 5 travel days for that price. If you only have 3 rail trips, you wouldn't get maximum value out of the pass. There's always a possibility of other discounts offered in the winter, closer to your trip.

May? You shouldn't worry about all that at this point. You might just get lured away from the very modern cities of Berlin and Munich to some of Germany's enchanting old-world towns instead once you start poring over the guidebooks.

Are you flying out of Amsterdam? Assuming the trip you already outlined, that's only 3 major travel legs. If out of FRA, then 4.

Are you staying in Frankfurt or nearby on Night 1? In that case, Sparpreis tickets for Day 2 or Day 3 or whenever you leave should not be a hugely "risky" purchase. If you plan to get off the plane and right on a train to Munich, then it's true that a Sparpreis ticket for this trip is ill-advised.

One very common stopover for those using FRA is the Middle Rhine Valley, home to 40 castles in 40 miles of river. Ruedesheim, Bingen, and Bacharach are all within 1-1.5 hours of FRA.

@ Laura...thanks for the info. So, the Regional Pass (a 2 country ) now becomes a Select Pass? The best thing is that the time period to have the Pass activated has been extended to 11 months, fits into my travel plans and style neatly, which means you can get the promo offer prior to Sept 30, 2016 along with its current price and still go over next May or June to have it activated and then have another two months to use it up. We can expect DB to increase its normal ticket prices, say Frankfurt to Munich or Berlin to Kiel, etc. by Dec 2016, which will be reflected on Pass prices in 2017.

@ Russ: We will be flying from Amsterdam to Dublin. We will be flying back to Frankfurt to catch our flight back to the US. Does the Frankfurt airport tend to experience a lot of delays? We don't intend to spend the night in Frankfurt. I'm not sure if you can tell by now, but I'm not a very spontaneous traveler :) I like to research and book everything ahead so as to minimize any surprises.

"I like to research and book everything ahead so as to minimize any surprises."

I'm like that as well - at least for the "bones" of my trip, which means the major flights and train legs, and the bulk of my accommodations. If I have 3-4 days in one place, my "spontaneity" is mostly choosing which already-noted sights and short-distance outings I will undertake and on which days I will do those. Sometimes a festival or other local event gets my attention and I change plans - sometimes the weather decides. I can't remember waking up on any particular morning and thinking I have nothing to do.

You can do this sort of involved planning in combination with a railpass - and still buy the railpass at the last minute if you wish (railpass refunds = hefty fee.) Point-to-point DB tickets sound like they'd be no problem for you since you commit to things well in advance - but you need to buy those 3 months in advance for the best price. If fate changes your plans, then you can refund such tickets in advance (for a fairly reasonable fee.) Since you have separate tickets, refunds for just one travel day are possible (not so with railpasses - if you use only 6 days of a 7-day pass, you don't get a cent back.)

FRA: Never had flight delays there myself - my problems have always been on the USA end. Recently had a flight from SFO to Stockholm via Amsterdam cancelled and was re-routed to Stockholm via FRA instead (2 hours late.) Another time my connecting flight from St. Louis headed for London was cancelled - and I was stuck in St. Louis for 48 hours.