david7031

If you haven't already bought a ticket...I suggest you buy one when you arrive. There are many trains from Frankfurt Airport to Berlin, more than once an hour. The ICE trains usually cost €116 and take approx. 4.5 hours with one change. However, there is also an IC train at 8:11 which takes 5 hours and costs €91.

You can go to the ticket counter if you want. However, you will also find lots of self-service ticket machines around. They have an English user interface available and take credit cards. If there is a line at the ticket counter, just use a machine: it will sell you a ticket and also print out your itinerary, including platform numbers and departure/arrival times. With either the machine or the ticket agent, you will get up-to-date information about the next connection. The machine will take you 5 or 6 minutes, and (if there's no line) the agent will be even faster.

I wouldn't worry too much about the reserved seat. You are travelling at 7 or 8 in the morning on a Sunday! It is not likely that the train will be completely full. Now, if this were Sunday afternoon, or Friday afternoon, or Monday morning, that would be different...

Are you using the train just this once to get to berlin, or will you be travelling by train elsewhere in Germany? The reason I ask is, there is currently a special sale of the "BahnCard 25", which gets you a 25% discount on all fares. It currently costs €25 for 4 months. Now, the fare difference on those fares I mentioned above is just about €25, so if you're not travelling elsewhere by train, it's not worth the trouble. But if you are...then it might be worthwhile! If you decide you need a BahnCard, PM me and I'll tell you how to do it...

mosburger

David7031 and other Bahncard mandarins, an urgent question if I may?

Arriving FRA early next week and need to take a same day train to Berlin. Then Berlin to Hannover and back a few days later and possibly also Berlin to Cologne and back during the weekend.

I really want to get myself at least the "Weltmeister" 25 Bahncard immediately on arrival. As I also do have a German postal address for sending the actual card later if needed, can the DB staff give me a temporary card at the FRA or Franfkurt Main Station DB office? Or do I need to print something out from the internet?

Thanks for any advice.

TheStinger

Thanks for the reply and info mate. I have also been told by a local travel agent here that I will be fine getting a train at that time, so my plans will probably involve getting a ticket when I get there. Sounds like I will be fine.

As for your other point, I am going to be in Berlin for quite a while (6 months or so) so it would probably be useless for me to get the BahnCard. Thanks for trying though.

The closer this trip gets, the more I am being relaxed about it as I find more info to allay my fears. Forums like this are invaluable to the inexperienced traveller.

railways

If you haven't bought your air ticket yet, depending on which airline you fly on, you may be able to arrange a Rail & Fly ticket.

TheStinger

No, I've already bought my plane ticket. I'm coming in with Malaysia Airlines and I'm not sure whether they would be a part of the Rail & Fly system.

david7031

Hi mosburger,

The DB ticket office at FRA or Main Station can certainly sell you a temporary BahnCard. You can also buy it in advance via the Internet, which might save you a little time in Frankfurt. The reason is, the BahnCard is actually sold as an "Abo", that is, an automatically renewing subscription. You will need to remember to write them a letter *cancelling* your subscription soon after you get the card - at the latest, within 8 weeks. Otherwise they will send you a new one and bill you for it!

It is good that you have a German address for them to send the card to. However, another possible problem just occurred to me: DB usually wants you to give them your German bank account number, so that they can automatically deduct the payments for your future BahnCards. (Remember, you are buying a subscription!) I just looked at the DB web site, but I couldn't really tell if it would let you get away with buying the BahnCard without naming a German bank account. You might want to try doing this on-line: if it sells you the BahnCard, fine! If it refuses to do so, you might also try at the ticket counter. I'm just not sure if it will work or not...

mosburger

Thanks David.

Also no problem regarding the bank account, as I still do bank with the other DB, aka Deutsche Bank. Great benefit is that they actually have at least a single own ATM in Asia, namely in Shanghai.

interessierterlaie

There was a promo code in some German Newspaper last Sunday:

BHFCXYU6

It can be used for a ticket which costs at least 49€ (excluding seat reservation) and if you book it online (account needed).
The code applies to regular tickets and discounted ones so if you find a Spezialpreis for 49€ you'll get it for 29€.

Trains: ICE, IC/EC
Class: 1st and 2nd

You can also book for other people.

Booking Period: 29th-31st May 2011
Travel Period: ends August 30th 2011

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/angebot/ak...jahreice.shtml

chrissxb

thanks for that one ^ brought my Freiburg - Krakow ticket for this summer down to 48€ which is really not bad for a return ticket

mosburger

Btw, got my Bahncard without any special hassle at the Frankfurt Main Station DB travel centre. The Airport DB office had a huge line in the morning so just waited until my downtown meeting was over. Temporary card in coupon form for now and the actual one then send to a German mailing address later.

Thanks to the collective FT wisdom once again and especially david7031

david7031

You're welcome!

interessierterlaie

Some information which came with the latest Bahn Newsletter nothing to hold your breath for but maybe of interest:

• Europa Spezial extended to Stockholm.
  
  
• Tickets booked via the mobile phone may now be booked up to 1 min before departure instead of 10.
  
  
• bahn.bonus awards like 'Upgrade to 1st class' and 'Mitfahrer-Freifahrt' can now be booked as an online ticket.
  
  
• And there is an offer to travel with the TEE (1st class return) from Düsseldorf, Cologne etc. to Heidelberg July 23rd and September 10th. Included are a guided city tour and a boat ride on the Neckar. Link: http://www.bahn.de/p/view/angebot/ta...0---Euro._LZ01

travelkid

Bahncard^ Kudos to DB.

stut

Quick couple of Qs for any German Rail experts...

I have a Sparpreis ticket from Berlin to Hamburg, including the S-Bahn connection from Alexanderplatz to the Hbf (just as a single ticket, not the CityTicket thing). Obviously, I have to take the ICE service stated on the ticket, but am I allowed to take an earlier S-Bahn.

(Obviously, it's not the end of the world if I have to pay extra, but it's useful to know...)

Also, I'm going to be arriving in Berlin from the night train from Vienna (by couchette). Been a while since I've been in a couchette, but I assume that it's still the done thing to travel fully clothed (so I'll change into sport-style stuff beforehand). If anybody knows what the toilet/wash facilities are like on the train, or if there's anything decent (or even a nearby public swimming pool) at Berlin Hbf, it would also be useful to know!

KQ321

1. Your ticket should be valid on any S-bahn between Alexanderplatz and Hbf.

The Sparpreis tickets are zugbindung (valid on the reserved train only) on ICE/IC/EC/CNL/EN/etc, but AFAIK not on connecting nahverkehr (local trains = IRE, RE, RB and S-bahn, I think). Your ticket should say something like:
“NV = Nahverkehrszüge vor / nach Fernverkehrszügen; gilt je fahrt max. 1 tag bis folgetag 10 uhr”
which means you can travel (once) on any local train on the NV part of the route that day – not solely the train(s) indicated in the ‘Reservation’ section of the ticket. I’ve often taken earlier local trains (eg: to give a safer connection before the onward fixed-reservation train) and never had a problem with this.

2. Most couchette compartments are shared, and mixed gender (female passengers can book into the women-only damenabteil – although I don’t think this can be booked online) – so yes, people normally travel more-or-less fully clothed.

3. The couchette car will probably have a washbasin, but no shower.

The Wien-Berlin sleeper is a Comfortline car, operated by CD. IIRC, the couchette car on this train is operated by MAV (yes, I know it doesn’t go through Hungary...) (I would upload a photo, but I can't work out how to do that yet...)

I haven’t actually travelled in a MAV couchette car, but I suspect the toilet/wash facilities are similar to other railways’ couchette cars. For example, DB and ÖBB couchette cars have 1-2 toilets at each end of the carriage, and a couple of washrooms (=small compartment with washbasin) in the corridor. It seems very unlikely that a couchette car would have a shower.

I don’t know what the arrival facilities at Berlin Hbf are like. Some large German stations have pay-showers available, but I can’t see these on the station plan for Berlin Hbf or Ostbahnhof.