Booking train tickets on Bahn's website
 

Any advice on how to use this website? Does it take non European credit cards? (Last year I couldn't use my credit card on Trenitlaia's website).

ALso, I do not have a printer, do I need to print the ticket at the time of purchase? OR, does Bahn email the ticket? If the later that's alright because I always buy tickets/book hotels., etc and then print everything at a friends. Is no printer a problem? Thanks.

One more thing, I just tried to make a faux booking and the only option I have is for tickets to be sent by mail. I am buying tickets from Berlin to Prague. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

Disclaimer: I haven't actually booked tickets on the DB site, but I've played around on it a lot. I just did a dummy booking for Berlin-Prague and I would have been able to print my ticket. I think that a PDF file is sent by e-mail and you are free to print the ticket whenever you wish, but I have no experience to back this up.

I know from reading lots of threads that the site readily accepts North American credit cards.

What is your travel date and preferred departure time?

This is for travel in late September, we don't have exact dates since we are still working out an itinerary we would prefer to travel in the morning.

I have had tickets mailed to my home address several times, and it does work. I'd allow plenty of time, though. I think the reason you can't do a self-print ticket is that you are traveling between two countries.

Hi 2g,

I buy tickets at bahn.de all the time, usually for travel between two countries (Germany and France or Germany and Switzerland), and I always print them out myself. Yes, you get a pdf. I usually e-mail the pdf to myself as an attachment, then I can print the ticket anywhere.

I would try again to see if you can get the print option.

Yes, they take US credit cards -- AMEX and MC and Visa.

Have fun!

s

I bought Prague to Dresden and DB mailed it to me - no option ( Dresden to Berlin I was able to print)

We traveled Prague to Berlin on Friday May 7th.
We purchased our tickets in April by internet and received them by mail about a week after we ordered them.
Cost for two persons was 98 Euros for two first class tickets
There is an additional fee for mailing.
We purchased our other tickets-Budapest to vienna and vienna to Prague- in the train stations.
You could purchase your Praha to Berlin tickets in the station a few days in advance of departure if you are concerned about receiving them in time.
We used an American Express credit card.

2g,

If you can commit well in advance to a specific departure date and time, you can get a Europa-Spezial Tschechien Savings fare as low as €29.

I opened my DB account several years ago and purchase tickets online regularly. It is a very user friendly site compared to many other country's websites.

We have them mailed to us and they have always arrived promptly. We also have used the site just to purchase seat reservations.

I use my AMEX card.

For those of you that choose to print your tickets, is there not a particular format that is required, not 8.5 x 11?

A4 is the standard size for paper in Europe, but 8.5 x 11 works fine.

Yes, they specify A4, but I didn't have any trouble with the regular US 8.5x11 before I moved. I always am careful not to fold across or rumple the bar code, which the conductor scans with his/her handy dandy handheld scanner.

s