Originally Posted by
monitor
As andre1970 says, these "demand pricing" structures have been put into place by many companies and the apparent ease of use and the feelings of fair play and transparency transmitted when they are used is a function of the skill of the IT guys who develop the systems (and of the instructions they have received from the top).
The "demand pricing" system is not the main problem with the cr@... sorry... crappy Deutsche Bahn AG. With a Bahncard 25 or Bahncard 50 (discount card) you don't pay more, but have the full flexibility.
The problem is that German trains are not reliable at all, that connections don't work, that first class coaches are often missing (!). And if a connection doesn't work, all seat reservations for ulterior trains become obsolete.
Due to the fact that a lot of side tracks are removed, a single delay can break down the whole system. There is no staff on a lot of stations and trains, finding a contact person when something get wrong is often an an impossible thing.
And when CEO Mehdorn always says that the Deutsche Bahn AG is "the best railway in Europe", I could not only puke my guts out - as a former employee of the Swiss railway industry (actually located in Germany) I even consider this as an absolute sneer against all Swiss railwaymen.
Anyway, the typical passenger of Mehdorn's dreams is a guy with an executive-consultant face and an inborned cellphone, sitting in an ICE in 1. Class at 300km/h (to any destination - main issue is 300km/h) doing his pseudo-important work with a bootlicking smile.