I have been trying to figure out if we should fly or take a train from Mannheim Germany to Flensburg. The prices are all over the place and i can't figure out why they would be so different. There is one that comes up at 103.00 US Dollars for 4 people but then leaving at a later date it is 244.00. And then there are other times and prices. It seems they are all 2nd class and an ICE Train but I can't figure out why the pricing difference? Anyone have an insight to what is going on here?
M
Posted by
Green Bay
21144 posts
Why in the world would you look for prices on Rome2Rio? They are a very imperfect estimating tool. In Germany, trains are run by Deutsche Bahn (for the most part). www.bahn.com will show you EXACTLY what the price and schedule is, and even sell you the ticket. They run the trains.
Posted by
PA
2857 posts
I believe the prices you see on rome2rio would be for tickets that you would buy for the immediate trip. It will not show advance discounts. Just use it as a starting point, and go to the real ticket seller, using your real dates.If your dates are too far in the future, make up fake dates to get an idea.
Posted by
Washington DC
28069 posts
And use skyscanner.com (or airline search engine of your choice) for airfare.
Train fares can vary greatly by day of travel, time of travel, type of train and date of purchase.
Rome2Rio is highly imperfect. It's not just the fares that are often off the wall. The travel times and frequence may bear no resemblance to reality. Just use that website to figure out what sort of transportation may be available and what transfer point you may need to use. Keep drilling down until you find the name of the train/bus company providing the service you're interested in and go to its website.
Posted by
Uppsala, Sweden
6970 posts
Don't bother with Skyscanner or any other flight search engine, there is no reason to fly. Mannheim to Flensburg is 6:30 or so by train with one change. Flying will cost more and won't save any time. Also, 2nd class is perfectly fine.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
On the bright side...at least you didn’t get sucked into the Eurail Pass snare🙂🙂
Posted by
Tucson
4183 posts
When you use the DB website, putting in what day you want to go and what time, please note the "earlier" arrow at the top of the results and the "later" arrow at the bottom. By clicking on those you can see if traveling earlier or later will be cheaper.
Most of the variation in price seems to be by time of day and by type of ticket. The prices shown are for the cheapest and the most expensive tickets. When you click on the red "To offer selection" button under the prices, you get a screen that shows the full details for the kinds of tickets. There are big differences in price there, too.
The prices are in €, not $. Keep them that way to start practicing thinking in €.
The initial results show the basics about each journey. To get more detail click on the "Show details" link.
When I was noodling around with this, I saw 2 basic journey lengths, depending on the day of travel. All trips had a train change in Hamburg. Some days had 6 hr 30 min trips. Some had 7 hr 30 min trips.
The 6 hr 30 min length allowed 8 or fewer minutes for the change. However, in the details you can see that the train arrives and leaves from the same platform or one very close by.
The 7 hr 30 min length allowed 49 minutes. And, you guessed it, the arrival and departure platforms are typically much farther apart, but not always. After 4 hours on the train, and with 4 people, I'd choose the longer trip so everyone can maybe have time to use a non-train toilet and grab a snack.
But you know your group, how much luggage they will have and how fast they will move. And on the day you want to go, you may not have a choice as to the length of the trip.
Posted by
OP
12 posts
Thank you for all the information! Really good suggestions to think about and I learned a lot that I didn't know! I'm sure I will have many more questions. Thank you!
Mhainstock