Changes to Train Portion of Trip/Germany
 

Hi, I recently booked a trip to CGN, and the leg from/back to FRA is by train. I would now like to return to FRA a little earlier than I'm currently scheduled. Does anyone know if they will let me travel on an earlier train (without a change fee), or is the departure time set in stone with these train connections?

Thanks!

Is your train seat a reserved seat?

I didn't even know UA booked Deutsche Bahn train connections; I thought the only code-share train service they booked was on the French TGV; I tried a dummy booking on the bomb and all that came up were air connections on LH. If they just booked a ticket for you with no discount, you should be able to change the return reservation with DB directly in FRA. The Deutsche Bahn website is www.bahn.de

And, as a friendly aside, there's no need to start a second thread if you don't get an answer right away -- just bump the original one if it drops off the front page.

I hope this was somewhat helpful.

Thanks for the reply. As I should have written, the ticket was a combination UA/LH ticket, the portion to Cologne has a LH flight number.

The second post was a bit of an error. I forgot to subscribe to the thread, and wanted to edit it. I search for it, but the only thing that came up was a thread I had replied to ages ago. So, I just assumed that it never posted for whatever reason. Sorry to take up the extra space.

Are you sure this is actually a rail connection? There are a number of LH flights from FRA to CGN and the LH website does not book rail connections, it books into LH flights. If it's a flight, the usual change fees, etc. would apply depending on the fare. I would suggest a call to LH reservations to sort this out and figure out what options you have. One option I would suggest looking into if they'll allow it is dropping the return CGN-FRA flight and taking the train down to the airport in FRA. A first class DB ticket from CGN to FRA Airport on a nonstop ICE train is 83 Euros, which might be less than the change fee.

I fly ORD-FRA quite often and go on to Stuttgart. You can board any train that meets your schedule. The only downside is if it is a "rush hour" train, you might not get a seat. There is NO charge to board any train; simply board and look for a seat where there is no red reserved light or reserved piece of paper above the seat and sit down and enjoy your ride.

Thanks! That's it!
 

Segar had the answer, thanks for the reply!

And, US2, I did a rotten job of explaining the situation, so let me start over. I bought a ticket on Orbitz from SEA to Cologne. The ticket is a mix of United and Lufthansa flights, with a leg in each direction from FRA to Cologne, City Center train station (not CGN, as I probably implied! It meets my needs better just to directly into town.) The train connections have LH flight numbers, so I wasn't sure if they were flexible or not. I was afraid if I called LH Customer Service, I'd get the company line - changes cost blah, blah...

(1) I should have explained this a little better, and (2) the Lufthansa forum might have been a better choice for this. Well, it's been a little warm up here, so perhaps we can just chalk it up to that!

A big thank you to those who replied, and/or a big pardon me to those who were confused! As usual the FT readership has proven itself to be both knowledgable and nice.