gojko88

I was booking a return flight from BEG to FRA in August, and the website got bugged on the Rail & Fly bit, leaving me with no ticket for the train, only the one for the flight. I called the local LH call centre the next day and booked the ticket with no problem. It's bothersome having to dictate all the data and numbers, but the booking itself is perfectly doable. They sent me a PDF with the confirmation and reservation numbers by e-mail, no paper tickets whatsoever. I remember LH's website being very vague and stating that only international flights originating in Germany are available for R&F, but that's not true, the same applies the other way around as well.

clifford79

Do you mean that it's hit and miss for LH-operated flights if you don't have 220 tickets?

I've used R&F tickets for CI and CA flights ex-Germany. Always with tickets from the operation carrier (even though LH codeshared on the CA flight(s)), booked by a TA.

Is it possible to print the R&F tickets at home before the start of the journey, i.e. not have to get them from the DB machines?

gojko88

AFAIK no, because the actual tickets (with their own numbers) are only issued after you've entered your reservation number and final destination at the kiosk. Physical presence is required at the train station, I think that not even a DB ReiseZentrum operator can issue you one.

That said, the entire process of obtaining tickets takes no more than 60 seconds, everything's kept simple and streamlined.

alexanderrr

I would advise you to call LH line in Germany - their reps in other countries are usually not very familiar with Rail & Fly. Last year I had a ticket booked on Expedia.ca and I tried to contact LH offices in Canada and US without any success, but LH-Germany issued it in a couple of minutes. I believe it was LH - issued ticket (220 -), although only one out of 3 flights was actually on LH.

Xyzzy

I gave Expedia a call this morning. As expected they had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of the Rail & Fly program. I then called Lufthansa in the USA. The agent could nt have been nicer. My ticket was NOT issued on LH ticket stock but it did not seem to matter at all. (This thread is the only place I have ever seen ticket stock mentioned with regard to this program) Within 10 minutes I had paid my €25 and had my confirmation number. It was fairly early US time, and I have no idea where the agent was located. The pdf file I received with my booking confirmation has the US call center information on it.

Tenere

Assuming that you've bough LH Tickets with op-LH: are you sure you can buy R&F tickets if you fly INTO Germany?

As far as I understood the R&F Tickets can only be issued for flights leaving Germany resp. for your transport to the departure airport and your transport from German arrival airport back home!

If you were able to get the 11-digit "Deutsche Bahn" codes (self ticket machines at every rail way station) for the R&F it was a mistake by the poorly trained agents who work nowadays for LH ....

olm022

Rail&Fly can be bought for any LH flight that departs or terminates in Germany, with the exception of some origins, viz.: to/from Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Salzburg, Vienna, and Zürich. Flights via Germany are not eligible for Rail&Fly (for instance, if there is a ticket for routing XXX-FRA-YYY-FRA-XXX and for some reason one flies XXX-FRA-YYY-FRA and would like to buy Rail&Fly justifying this by a long layover between YYY-FRA and FRA-XXX, Rail&Fly is not allowed, unfortunately. ...

Xyzzy

You understand incrrectly. While the Rail & Fly web page might appear to suggest this because it only really references departure from Germany, the program is valid for both arrival and departure. The first 'important condition' listed on the progam web page is as follows:Note the lack of any specificity as to direction of travel. If that were a rule, I would think it would be 'important' enough to be included in the list. I spoke with several Lufthansa agents about this and I have a R&F ticket for next week for the day of my arrival in Germany on a Lufthansa (codeshare) flight.

gojko88

^Same. R&F is definitely bookable for arrivals to Germany as well as departures from it, used it on multiple occasions with flights originating in BEG.

eponymous_coward

Cool! ^ I will definitely be using this in the future with US *A awards where I have an LH segment, then. SEA-FRA with a train ride to Berlin, Munich or Cologne sounds like a winner to me, and I already used R&F on Berlin-Leipzig with an AB ticket last year (that AB allowed me to buy in conjunction with a FRA-TXL ticket- this seems to be against the rules, but wasn't going to complain).

henry999

I am very glad to hear that you were able to buy a Rail&Fly ticket under the circumstances that you describe. I hope to utilise the R&F programme myself for an upcoming trip to Germany.

However, who is eligible and who is not is not unambiguous. After all, the 'important condition' you cite does not say 'international Lufthansa flight'; it says 'international Lufthansa flight ticket'.

In any event, it is good news indeed that the ticket number (220- or otherwise) doesn't seem to matter.

cheers,

Henry

oliver2002

The rules are very simple: you need a LH marketed flight number. The rail ticket is issued separately and doesn't need to be added as a segment in the booking. LH just needs a LH flight number so it appears for them to crossreference it in their native GDS.

Other airlines also participate in the DB R&F programme. Most TAs can add a R&F to any flight booking in Germany. They will charge 5-7€ for the work though.

Xyzzy

My reservation had an LH flight number in it fr the segment used to transport me to Germany.

Tenere

OK never stop learning - some time ago LH issued the R&F on the well known print-ticket formats and shipped them by snail mail to German adresses only!

Since the introduce the 11-digits "Deutsche Bahn" (German Railway) code to replace the printed tickets there seem to be more options!

This is good to know for all visitors who want to avoid (stupid) connecting flights e.g. FRA-STR oder MUC-NUE^

However remember that arrival after 20:00 might be with limited connections!

You can save also in avoid the 10% Car Rental Airport service charge which is charged to the whole lenght of the rentals in most cases. Travel to your first destination by train, then take car from the local car rental office at normal office hours (usually 8-18)

However as foreigners you also have following options to choose from: http://www.raileurope.com/us/shopping/pass_finder.htm

One thing I still don't understand: for us Germans it's valid from our hometown to airport (refering to the ticket/filekey) - how do they book this for foreigners? can you travel 2 days around the country wherever you like or do you need to tell the agents where is your first hotel?

gojko88

If I understood correctly back in October when I last used R&F, you can only go as far as any given railway route goes. For instance, my gf and I were booked FRA - Essen, so we were allowed to make a stopover in Düsseldorf outbound and in Cologne inbound, as they were en route. However, we couldn't have gone to Munich and then to Essen, for example, as Munich is not en route to our final destination. We would have had to buy a ticket for the Munich - Essen leg.

Whether the ticket agent onboard would have bothered with our tickets sufficiently to figure that out is another question.