Seems
Bruce80 beat me to replying... Nevermind, it seems we broadly agree on most points...
Originally Posted by
bruce80
Well, this depends on the type of ticket you purchase. As far as I know (not 100% sure as I usually buy Sparpreis tickets when travelling on my BC25), you'll only receive a discount for the person holding the BC when purchasing full-fare tickets, but you'll receive a discount for both when purchasing a discounted ("Sparpreis") ticket (as long as you purchase one ticket for both travellers).
Interesting... My understanding of the SparPreis tickets was not that the BahnCard discount got applied to additional pax, but that the price of a SparPreis ticket for a single pax is 'from €29', and up to 4 additional pax can be included for 'from €20':
Accompanying persons Up to 4 persons from EUR 20.00 supplement each.
So, for a journey priced at €29 for one person, two people booked together would pay €49 (€29+€20)
not €58 (€29+€29). This could easily 'look like' a BC25 discount, but is not. If the first pax has a BC25, they get the discount, and
I think if additional pax have BC25s, their incremental prices get discounted as well. However, I haven't played around with
bahn.de booking engine in detail to test all of this...
Originally Posted by
bruce80
They don't require a DB segment, but yes, in order to profit from international discount ("RailPlus"), your journey needs to start in Germany. Not sure whether third-country cross-border segments (e.g. Austria-Switzerland) will also be eligible for RailPlus discount from a DB BahnCard.
The RailPlus wording on websites is often a bit unclear, but IME, I have got the RailPlus discount for third-country cross-border segments (as long as a) the two countries are on the RailPlus list, and b) the ticket seller is aware of the RailPlus T&Cs...) However, websites such as
b-europe.com and
nsinternational.nl (and the respective conductors) now recognise it without problem. IIRC, there is a separate (but in practice, the same) arrangement between DB/SBB/ÖBB that gets BC holders a 25% discount on cross-border travel between those countries, and that also seems to be upheld with no problem.
EDIT: Just remembered that I've asked for, and failed to get, a RailPlus discount for travel between Czech Republic and Slovakia (even though both countries are on the
RailPlus list, and at least CD offer RailPlus cards themselves). However, I am not sure if the problem was due simply to translation problems, or the particular ticket type not being eligible for discount - or due to the BC25/RailPlus not being accepted.