Thanks all for your replies - very helpful
Originally Posted by
fransknorge
For Super Sparpreis you can take any Regional train from the beginning of validity up to the next day at 3 am. I understand the beginning of validity to be the time of the first segment, but I might be wrong.
This was exactly my concern ! But the way you phrased it was much clearer (i.e. the key question is when does the ticket validity start?)
Originally Posted by
lipsum
Yeah, it's allowed.
If you feel more comfortable, you can also force the earlier train by putting in a connection in Cologne in the search, adding a stopover of 2h (or whatever length is appropriate).
Thanks. I did find the "add stop" option on the DB website, and must say that I was very impressed with this function (more so that it even allows you to tweak the result to get earlier or later connections). Unfortunately though for everything I tried (even without adding a stop) the DB site won't give a price for any of the routings it suggests (I assume because of the combination of RE, ICE and TGV). It does give a price for routings starting in Dusseldorf Hbf - but that would just add a needless stop to my journey and raises the price as the train to Koeln is also an ICE train.
Originally Posted by
LondonElite
Should be no problem at all.
Good to read - that's what I'll do then. The uber-safe option I guess is to just buy the ticket from Koeln to Lille Europe and then buy a ticket DUS to Koeln on the day. As the price though for the connections I am looking at for DUS->Lille-Europe is exactly the same as Koeln->Lille Europe I'd rather save the unnecessary cost of DUS-Koeln and put it towards my lunch there
