exilencfc

I bow to your superior knowledge which I trust is recent.

On the people turfing you out... My Dad was a railway manager so we had free first class travel everywhere in the UK. My brother and I used to go off on trains all over the place at the weekend. we got a lot of angry glares when we sat down in first, quite often from people who were subsequently thrown out themselves.

joer best of luck with the planning and I hope you enjoy your trip.

linglingfool

This has been my recent experience as well. One important thing to note here is that DB machines accept both chip and non-chip tickets for DB tickets, but not necessarily tickets sold on behalf of local transport associations. OP's travel is all long-distance, so this doesn't come into play, but thought I would mention it in case someone pulls up this thread down the road.

SeattleSon76

Buy your tickets online from the departing station's national railway. You can print them out instantly and no stress (not to mention the cheapest price).

But as a person of around the same age, also with a full-time job, who used to live in this region -- relax, otherwise you won't enjoy your vacation.

Aviatrix

Departing OR arriving - bahn.de also sells tickets for journeys ending in Germany.

Though, as I found out the other day, they still don't do online tickets for all departure countries. They do for some (like the Netherlands), they don't for others (like Slovenia - where I'm travelling from next week), I don't which category the Czech Republic falls into.

joer1212

I just went on the Austrian site to book my ticket Vienna-Prague, and, let me tell you, no matter how many times I selected "English" they insisted on giving me info in German.
This is one reason why I was subconsciously opposed to booking on multiple national websites. They're not user-friendly for English speakers. On Rail Europe, everything is standardized and Americanized, which makes it easy for me.

Alex71

I have no problem at all switching it to English. Here's the direct link to the English version of the site: http://www.oebb.at/en/index.jsp

SeattleSon76

Works fine for me in English through the whole process. Just tried using the link above.

If the convenience of Rail Europe is worth paying 2-4+x the cost, it seems that they have found their target audience with you. For example:
March 20, Vienna to Prague, via OEBB 29 euros (39 USD). Can't buy that ticket on RE yet, but dates in February on the same exact train via RE are 107 USD.

Prague -Dresden 19 euros (26 USD) vs 52 USD on Rail europe

Dresden-Berlin 19 euros (26 USD) vs. 65 USD on RE

Berlin-Munich 29 euros (39 USD) vs 182 USD on RE

Oh, and some routes you have to have RE mail you paper tickets. You can print out all the tickets immediately if you buy them from the rail agencies. (Although I don't think Czech or German tickets for March will be loaded into the system for another couple weeks.)

If you have the cash to blow, just call RE and tell them what you want, I'm sure they will send your tickets to you as soon as they are available.

SeattleSon76

And a quick check of Rail passes that would work for your trip show the cheapest option at $506. Reservations extra still.

joer1212

Ouch! I wasn't aware that the price difference was so drastic! I thought it was maybe a 10-20% difference.
And, yes, I remember buying a Thaly's Paris-Amsterdam r/t on Rail Europe and paying over $250 for it. Plus, I had to wait to get a paper ticket in the mail.

joer1212

Thanks, I will try it out.

SeattleSon76

Not every ticket will be that cheap, of course, but you have the advantage that they aren't selling tickets for March yet. Check every couple days and you should get your choice of time for the cheapest possibility.

joer1212

Anyone know why when I select a trip from a German city to a foreign city (e.g. Dresden-Prague) on the German website, it says "fares not available", while between German cities, it tells you the date when you can purchase them? What does "fares not available" mean?

Reindeerflame

This might mean that tickets for these city-pairs are not sold by DB on line, or that inventory is not yet loaded. As mentioned in earlier posts, many, but not necessarily all, trips from/to Germany t/from another adjoining country are available on line. You might try an inquiry for travel dates in the next month to see if tickets are being offered.

Aviatrix

The German version of the site has two varieties of "unknown":

Preisauskunft nicht möglich - "fare information not available"

Unbekannter Auslandstarif - "unknown foreign fare"


The first one only appears for itineraries more than three months away, so clearly a case of "not yet loaded". If you want a general idea of fares just look at days that have been loaded.

"Unknown foreign fare" appears for itineraries that involve trains that cannot be booked via bahn.de - such as trains operated by private operators.

joer1212

Hmm. I may have to book some tickets on Rail Europe after all, high cost or not.