Need help with German trains
 

I researched this board, but didn't find the help I need. I went to the bahn site & got stuck. Hope you can help.

One day during the last week of April 2010, we want to take the train for a day trip from Munich to Salzburg. Went to the bahn site & it posts "no fares available at this time".
Do the fares only post so many days in advance?
Are seats available if we just buy at the station on the day we want to travel?
What is a typical fare.
Is it a lot more to purchase at the station rather than in advance? We prefer to be flexible on which day we choose.

One day the first week in May, we plan to travel from Munich to Berlin (one way). On the bahn site I input the info & get the schedules. I select the one I want, but it always gives me a window for the return trip. I don't see any button/link/whatever to just get the price - which is what I really want - not ready to reserve yet. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

Is going to the bahn site & inputing the desired date of travel the best way, or is there a specific train company, ticket, etc. that I should be researching?

I found $44 air fare on Air Berlin for the MUC to TXL trip, nonstop. Is this a discount airline like EasyJet & I will have to pay a lot of fees which increases the price (credit card, luggage, first born, etc)? Any other issues re: this airline that might effect my decision?

Any ideas on the approximate train fare & time it takes for the Munich to Berlin trip? Are there usually a lot of stop/train changes? Would be nice to take a train if financially & time feasible, & not a lot of hassle with changes; don't want to do an overnite. Is this a train trip that I should reserve in advance?

Thanks in advance, Julie

Bahn.de has all of the information on trains and schedules - including listing the type of train and exact number of stops.

The trip from Munich to Salzberg takes from 1 1/2 to 2 hours - the former with no stop. It says on the web site that fares are available only 92 days in advance. The bargain fares usually require advance purchase, and often sell our fast, so won;t work for you if you can;t commit to a particular schedule. However, even the walk up fares second class aren;t very much. (You are looking at the English version of the site aren;t you - I find the German intuitive, but I know many people don;t.)

As for Munich to Berlin, that's about 5 1/2 hours with no stops - and I would definitely do that versus a flight - esp a budget airline that won;t allow you more than a gyn bag for luggage. IMHO trains are much more comfy and for this amount of time just as fast when you consider all the toing/froing to an airport, security lines etc.

Munich to Salzburg: You can use the Bayernkarte/Bavarian Ticket. For up to 5 people riding on the same ticket (they need not be an "affinity group") you can go all over Bavaria (incl. Salzburg, which is in Austria), for EUR 28 for the day. Limitations:During the work week, you can't start the trip before 9AM and you must be at your final destination by 3AM the next day. You can only use REGIO Trains )no IC, EC or ICE). But on that short hop,it doesn't make much difference. On weekends you have more time. You can buy the ticket at the time of your departure at a kiosk or the ticket counter at the station.

If you want to get prices for the Berlin trip, just enter a closer departure date, such as the like day in the week on which you plan to travel, but in December or January. Schedules and prices change very little between now and when you plan to travel. Just hit "Jetzt buchen" or "book now", don't hit the "return trip" for your one way trip.

You are simply too early - train tickets can be booked 89 days in advance. Since the timetable has just changed and the prices have just been raised, there won't be changes until May. Check, as already suggested, for an earlier date on the same day of the week.

Air Berlin is not a budget airline. They like to brand themselves as one, and admittedly with bookings about 5 months in advance one may find a good deal as JulieAgain did, but in my experience otherwise they are quite expensive even vs their main competitor Lufthansa.
That, however, is of no relevance as JulieAgain did get a great fare. What's important, though, is that they do offer a free baggage allowance of 20 kg, so no rip off like Ryanair and rather like a proper airline.
The flight from Munich to Berlin is therefore much preferable over a train in my opinion.

I fly quite often Air Berlin. It is a good, reliable airline which is in business since 1955. No hidden fees.

The cheap tickets sell out quickly, so book ASAP.

Regarding your questions about trains: Just play around with www.bahn.de. Since you are too early to book, you may enter dummy dates and you will get an idea how the fares will develop.

Reservations are not mandatory. The bahn website indicates if a reservation is recommended - it is a really good website, play with it to see how it works. It is also possible to reserve multiple trains, in case you are not sure which train you will catch. However, if you buy a Sparpreis ticket, you have to take the booked connection (otherwise you have to pay an extra fee).

The fastest direct trains do Berlin-Munich in 6 hours, several need 6 1/2 hours. There are, of course, several stops along the route (around 8), but you don't need to change trains.

Munich's airport is quite easy to navigate. Since the security checkpoints are very near to check-in and gates, you will be on the very safe side if you do your check-in one hour prior to departure. Hardly anyone arrives earlier for domestic flights.
Air Berlin gives you free papers and magazines, free drinks and small snack & chocolate and free 20kg baggage allowance as mentioned. The only difference to Lufthansa is that Air Berlin got only one class on board, and that LH does not give you a free snack and chocolate in Eco.
For $44 all in, you can't do much wrong.

For that daytrip to Salzburg do what treplow wrote here. You don't need to buy the Bavaria ticket in advance since you can't reserve seats on those regional trains anyway. You pay a 2 Euros extra if get it from a window at the station vs. €28 from a machine at the station.

Hope you will have fun, and happy travels.

As others have said, buy a Bayern-Ticket for your Munich-Salzburg day trip. While it's only good after 09:00 on weekdays, it's good anytime on weekends. If you want to get an early start from Munich on a weekday, book Sparpreis tickets (19 euro) on the Railjet that leaves Munich at 07:27. Then buy a Bayern-Ticket for your return to Munich.

The fastest time on ICE trains from Munich to Berlin is just under six hours. The standard 2nd class fare is 116 euro. However, if you book well in advance (up to 90 days allowed) at www.bahn.de, you can get a Sparpreis fare as low as 29 euro. Those tickets are non-exchangeable and non-refundable so you need to be able to commit to a specific departure date and time.

If wanting flexibility you have to pay top dollar - like TimS says 116 euros if you just show up but as low as 29 euros way in advance - and way in often as some Germans here have said those tickets can be very hard to get sometimes and for some days, etc. so act early - non-refundable, train specific so be sure before booking. for full fare of about $160 there is actually a 4-day unlimited travel German Twin railpass p.p. that is only $35 more than just the Berlin to Munich full fare and the pass lets you on any train anytime - no reservations required - and you could use it to go to Salzburg and back too. that said by all means try the online discounts TimS and others point out - but if for some reason requiring full flexibility then the pass could be cheaper than paying full fare even for these two trips - and you would have two other days of unlimited rail travel anywhere in Germany. For loads on German trains i always highlight www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com - sites with tons of objective info and not just pass prices like many.

Thanks everyone. With all of your info, we are weighing heavily on the Air Berlin flight. Hubby loves train rides, but says he's not sure he wants to sit for 6-6.5 hours on one. We still have some time to decide. But I really do appreciate everyone's help. Appears the day trip train tickets can wait until we get there, which is nice for giving us flexibility.

Thanks again, Julie

And there is an overnight train between Munich and Berlin if you want to save on a hotel and travel at night - the CNL or CityNightLiner trains are some of the poshest overnight trains in Europe - some rooms even come with shower and toilet in them. Again bahn.de for great online advance fares.

T

Well, some decisions have been made since I posted this thread. We are flying Air Berlin to Berlin - thanks for that info. However, we are flying from Vienna, not Munich. We decided on Munich, then Vienna, then Berlin.

So, on the morning of May 1, 2010 we plan to train from the Munich train station to Vienna. I looked at the bahn.de site, put in a fake January date on a same day (Sat) & it 'appears' to me that it will take about 4 hours, non-changing trains - which is good since we will have our luggage.

For the 09:27 non-changing train, I saw a price of 29 euros, but I couldn't get it to work for me. Is that because I don't qualify or I don't know what I am doing?

As a test, I got thru a booking (didn't complete with CC info) for the 82.40 euros, 2nd class, flexible ticket. Now my other questions (yes, there are more!) -

1. What kind of train is RJ & is that ok?
2. I selected seats, but it doesn't let me see the location of the seats for selection or the location of the seats I got. How do I see that?
3. 2 adults but seat selection only allowed selection of aisle or window. Does that mean that we both will be at a window or both on an aisle & not get assigned seats together? How do we overcome that?
4. The big question - it seems like it would be much easier to buy the tickets onsite. If we do that, will there be a big markup on the ticket price or does it remain about the same? I prefer paying a little more just to be sure what we get, but I don't want to end up paying hundreds of dollars when we could have cheaply flown!

As you can tell, I need lots of help!

Julie

bahn.de seems to often say from 29 euros but then you must click on various trains to see if it is indeed available - not always as you found out

RJ trains are the best in Austria i think

Discount fares can sell out fast. The likely reason you couldn't get a discount fare for January is that the allotted number of seats probably were already booked. You can book up to 90 days in advance on the bahn.de site. Do a dummy booking for a date in March that is 90 days or less out and you should be able to get the €29 Europa-Spezial Oesterreich fare.

RJ = RailJet, a very modern train. You should be able to find adjoining seats without buying reservations.

You can read about the RailJet here: http://tinyurl.com/yz2z7ee.

Thanks for your info. Do you think we would be safe to wait until we get to Munich? Don't mind paying the 82 euros fare, just don't want to pay hundreds of euros!

What about the seat assignments - how does that work online?

Julie

I think you can count on the 82-Euro fare (or thereabouts). But 29x2 is a lot less than 82x2. I personally think the tiny bit of extra effort to get a 29-Euro ticket is worth it, but I know not everyone would agree.

Go to the Austrian railway website if you cannot find the fare on the German railway page. You can book the EUR 29.00 fare for 01 May with OeBB already. You will not be flexible to use another train with this fare, if that's important.


http://www.oebb.at/en/index.jsp

I have no experience with choosing seats online.

The €82.40 fare is the standard 2nd class fare. That's exactly what you would pay at the station, whether you bought the ticket today or in April.

if you have questions on how many seats are available I would go to the station and ask them in person. Typical rates you cannot base on trips from one city to the next, but they are usually reasonable if you are just getting around one city.

Thanks again. Train travel is so confusing to us Midwestern Americans. Sadly we only have vehicles & planes!

It is good to know that if we wait, the fare will be reasonably close to the 82 euros & not hundreds of dollars more like the airlines charge! But, WillTravel, I agree with you regarding the price difference. So, we will watch the dates & when allowed to reserve May 1, we'll see if we can grab the cheap fare. If not, we'll just buy at the station.

Now, regarding the seats. I noticed on the website, there is an option 'not' to request seat assignments. Is that what you folks do? Whether you request seat assignment or not, has the result been that your travel party gets seats together?

How are the 2nd class & 1st class seats arranged? 3+aisle+2? Seats facing other seats?

I didn't think to price the 1st class seats. May look at that since it is a 4 hour ride. We always ride 1st class in Italy when the trip is that long. Since we order in advance online, the price is not that much higher. The extra seat space is more comfortable, & the extra luggage space above the seats is more convenient.

hsv, thanks for the info & the link. I will check that out.

Happy Christmas Eve to those of you who observe & Happy Holiday Eve to everyone else!

Julie

2nd class schould be fine. They are probably slightly further apart than in air planes.
Seat arrangements is 2-aisle-2 on normal German express trains. In the middle of the car there are normally some seats with a desk in between them, so that you have a 2-face-2 configuration on each side of the aisle.

Merry Christmas

3 seats in the space of 4 seats - that is the basic difference between classes - plus there are typically more empty seats in first class - i always it seems have room for my luggage on an empty adjoining seat - and yes often a table in between - also isolated seats - aisle and window both

but in Austria 2nd class is pretty good too - but there is a big difference and that's why they charge so much more

That's the point 2/1 in first class, but in any case, a car is much better and far more spacious than first class on any train! I'll be installing a fridge between drivers and passenger seat soon, so I can drink ice cold coke while driving. :D