Programs: Severals Golds (BA, BD, AB and LH), Highest tier with HH, SPG and ICRA, lawyer, sometimes a nice guy
Posts: 4,937
Quote:
Originally Posted by sgchua
a quick question..
If I'm traveling together with my friends we need to separately buying the online ticket?
Or i can online purchase a few ticket at the same time but with 1 online-ticket id?
One ticket is fine. You can put up to five persons on a single ticket ID
I'll be travelling with my father next week from Frankfurt Süd to Zurich.
After the DB site gave me a "sorry we cannot complete your transaction", I had the concierge book two one-way F tickets.
What seats would you recommend we try to reserve? Open coach or compartment?
What seats would you recommend we try to reserve? Open coach or compartment?
It's really a matter of personal preference, but I would choose open seating unless traveling with a group that fills or nearly fills one of the compartments.
I just saw this sticky today and I am really impressed. Great job Flying Lawyer
My DB travel drastically increased in the last few month especially on MUC-FRA and FRA-BER. If I am not in a hurry I prefer the train over flying because I have more net time to work, while the overall travel time is not that much longer.
Compartments in "1. Klasse" are not that bad if you are the only one, using it Last weekend we went to Berlin and had a compartment just for the two of us. It was absolutely perfect, because we could work, talk and sleep without disturbance.
I DO avoid open saloon cars at all cost (the lack of compartment cars ZRH-MUC is the main reason that I use "real airplanes" on that route).
Unlike Swiss Railways do, the DB does not afford quiet cars on their trains - which turns open saloon 1st class unbearable on weekdays. In a compartment, you have max. 5 potential disturbers - while in an open saloon car you have about 80 of them. Additionally, in a compartment car people usually go out for making their phone-calls, and if you are lucky to have your own compartment (often happens on weekends in 1st Class) you can switch off the light and sleep...
Programs: LH HON, BA Gold, BMI, Amex Centurion, Hilton Diamond, SPG Platinum, Human race (general member)
Posts: 9,408
I usually travel DUS-Mannheim on the train on a Friday evening, when the train is packed every time. (Usually even standing room only in 1st...) Therefore I do not like the compartments, as I find them uncomfortable if all seats are taken. No place to stretch your legs as there is a person opposite you. Also the seats don't recline as far as in the open compartment. (not much difference, but I notice it)
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On peak hours, German trains can indeed become unbearable, in either class. So maybe even I would prefer an open saloon car (but I rather avoid taking German trains on peak hours).
When the train is not packed, compartments are much more comfortable IMO. If you feel disturbed by a fellow passenger in your compartment, you can change it - but people sitting in a compartment usually have a better behavior, because it's a difference in privacy. People usually go out of the compartments for making their calls.
But in an open saloon, you just need one single a...hole yelling into his mobile-phone who can spoil the quietness and comfort of the whole car (happened to me the last time when I took the train between MUC and ZRH about 7 years ago - it was an Italian business man...).
Taking the train in Germany was much better about 10-15 years ago, before the mobiles came up...
It would be great to have this updated for CNL (City Night Line) trains within Germany. I'm looking at the CNL from MUN->AMS and the fare options through db.de can be confusing.
some notes perhaps worth mentioning:
Last time I bought a bahncard they where able to take my picture there with a small digicam, very surprised by that. (It is ugly but at least I did not need to ruin a photo for that) The photo needs to be the size of a pass port, but you can cut that yourself.
Second it may be worth mentioning that you get a temporary bahncard right away - so if you want one because it is cheaper, they will be able to give you a paper version right away. I am not sure how buying one as a foreigner works.
This will roughly take you 15-30 minutes of filling that one out.
Note on the city tickets: this *only* applies when you have a ticket for >than a certain distance, I think it is either 60 or 100km, so just by buying any ticket does not give you a public transport ticket as you suggested.
Verkehrsbünde also sometimes will make you incapable to buy a ticket online, you then need to find out if there is a close alternative to enter. In my case: Lübeck is in one of those Verkehrsbünde, so I cannot buy Lübeck-Hamburg online. But I can buy a small city next to Lübeck to Hamburg online, because that would be three states and therefor is considered normal train travel.
I'm going from Split, Croatia to Frankfurt in September but direct plane tickets are really expensive. I've found some cheap ones but Germanwings only flies to Stuttgart and Cologne. So can anyone tell me how much do the train tickets cost from those cities to Frankfurt and how far the train stations are from the airport. And how can I get from airports to the train stations (rent-a-car excluded, don't own a drivers licence). Thanks in advance.
I'm going from Split, Croatia to Frankfurt in September but direct plane tickets are really expensive. I've found some cheap ones but Germanwings only flies to Stuttgart and Cologne. So can anyone tell me how much do the train tickets cost from those cities to Frankfurt and how far the train stations are from the airport.
Stuttgart and Cologne airports both have train connections (Stuttgart I think only S-Bahn regional transit) and the Deutsche Bahn website will provide connection info from the airport station.
Programs: Severals Golds (BA, BD, AB and LH), Highest tier with HH, SPG and ICRA, lawyer, sometimes a nice guy
Posts: 4,937
Quote:
Originally Posted by lostie
I'm going from Split, Croatia to Frankfurt in September but direct plane tickets are really expensive. I've found some cheap ones but Germanwings only flies to Stuttgart and Cologne. So can anyone tell me how much do the train tickets cost from those cities to Frankfurt and how far the train stations are from the airport. And how can I get from airports to the train stations (rent-a-car excluded, don't own a drivers licence). Thanks in advance.
Cologne has a direct raillink to Frankfurt with high speed trains, for Stuttgart you take a suburban train to the central station and change there for services to Frankfurt. Pretty easy. Check on www.bahn.de
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Last weekend we went to Berlin and had a compartment just for the two of us. It was absolutely perfect, because we could work, talk and sleep without disturbance.
